Post Game Media Availability | NBA Finals | OKC Thunder at Indiana Pacers | June 11, 2025

Post Game Media Availability | NBA Finals | OKC Thunder at Indiana Pacers | June 11, 2025

sh Jenny Carlson with the Oklahoma mark said that he didn’t feel like their strategy defensively on you changed much but their execution that he felt like their force was more um on point tonight what did you see from them defensively and what impact did that have on the turnovers especially you had tonight yeah they were aggressive they were um they were higher on the pick and rolls um they really were just like coach said more aggressive more forceful um yeah we got to starts with me but we got to um apply that pressure back um especially if you want to beat a team like that on the road you got to beat the more forceful team for sure first right here on the left Shay uh you guys go in the fourth quarter up five then you’re only able to score 18 in the quarter you only got three shots up uh what got you guys stuck in the mud and you know what kept you from get going individually in the fourth um it’s hard to say like it’s hard to say cuz I don’t see it from like a bird’s eye view right now after watching film we’ll we’ll definitely have a better idea um but they were like they were aggressive they were heavy in the crowd um I’m not sure how many points they have but it felt like um when they scored like we’re going against a set defense and it’s always harder against a set defense um so off the top of my head those are a few things but I’m sure there’s probably more that we can uh weave through once you watch film first here on the right Joel Lens with Shay it was almost too many winning plays to count on the any kind of side it felt like in the fourth quarter you know Obies put back the the steel on the inbound like what was maybe the most frustrating part of the way the fourth quarter unraveled uh I’m not too sure we just like you said they it felt like they won all the 50-50 plays um they executed on both ends of the both ends of the ball um when you uh when you give those two things up and no matter what quarter you’re probably going to lose the quarter um especially in and then it goes back to especially on the road in a hostile environment and crowds behind them so yeah we got to take care of those things if you want to come out of game four with a do all right second row middle world their defensive pressure seemed to really affect you guys right there at midc court both you and Jaylen were always sort of uh coralled up what what was different about tonight more besides maybe they’re just playing with more force they were higher in the pick and rolls um had they been going that high no they had during the series no they hadn’t that’s what they were higher tonight in the pick and rolls like they were above the screen so like when you come off it you got to go backwards and that’s a little bit of it goes back to a little bit more force like if we are more aggressive to start the pick and roll and setting it up then we get a better angle um things like that usually come down to like who throws the first punch and I think that’s what that was all right first row far left nick Gallow Casey Thunder Shay uh what do you guys do as competitors here for the next 48 hours i know you probably wish you could get right back out there and and play those guys again right now but how do you win these next 48 hours yeah learn from your mistakes rest recovery um do everything we can to be a better basketball team come next game uh yeah I would say those things second row on the left yeah McConnell steals three inbounds and uh you guys had a few more I think Caruso called them pick six type turnovers where it’s just you know run out dunks um as you look at a game like this how detrimental are not only those points but just how it feels when a guy just like you know steals an inbound layup yeah uh those plays hurt especially because they’re very like controllable um you can take your time and mount the ball but you make mistakes in basketball no matter the stage and we definitely had opportunities to to cover those things up but also you also don’t let plays like that happen um so yeah it like it just goes back to being tighter being more focused being more forceful all night and um things like that really hurt for sure last question fourth row middle john Holler from The Athletic yeah nine of 20 from the field tonight did you feel happy with the shots you got or did you feel like you could get to better ones or was it more just you got what you wanted and miss them yeah I feel like I had some good looks in it that I missed that I usually make um uh there’s moments where I could have been a little bit more aggressive I would say um but yeah I’ll watch film clean everything up and try to be better for this basketball team come next game all right first question here in the front on the right sorry joel Lorenzi with the Oklahoma Jaylen i I I believe it was 19 turnovers after it all um just how would you sort of characterize those and and on the inbound steals from McConnell like what did those plays sort of feel like they sucked just bad unforced turnovers so those usually those usually hurt you especially especially like in these games where there’s like such high stakes and it’s going to be separated by you know one or two possessions those are very controllable turnovers and they resulted in points so we had control of the game and those turnovers are the ones where like you know they get back into it they get the crowd into it you know what I mean so if we can cut those out I think we’ll be in be in good shape but yeah we had a lot of uncharacteristic turnovers that also led to touchdowns so um or points for everybody that doesn’t know that reference but that that hurt us tonight for sure first row Jenny Jaylen Mark said that um Jenny Carlson with the Oklahoma mark said that he didn’t feel like defensively they changed philosophy but attack and approach was more forceful how do you counter that going into four be um you said them yeah they didn’t they didn’t change they didn’t change around too much they just amped up their pressure and you know being at home you have that that juice to do it so we got to meet that same amount of force and exceed it we hit that pull sorry Tim right here in the You hit that pull up at the end of the third seemed like a huge shot at the time put you guys up five what stands out to you about what went wrong after that i missed a shot and then I fouled and they’re right back in the game that’s that’s been kind of the same thing it’s kind of like the thing I was talking about with the turnovers like this team makes big runs and like those little unforced errors are where obviously I can’t control if I missed a shot or not that’s that’s not really the issue it’s just more a foul give up an and one now they’re back within two and now that shot kind of means nothing you know what I mean so I think we can just have we just had a lot of unforced errors and they capitalize on them because they’re a good team third row on the right hi Jaylen mike Bornoff with the Athletic most young teams when they try to win a title for the first time kind of have this inflection point or pivot moment for themselves now down to one in this series do you view that um as that moment for you guys and what do you think um you can learn from the Denver series here i mean we’ve been in that exact same kind of predicament um this game three was a better game three than the ones we’ve had so we’ll take that and run with it but yeah I mean it’s very pivotal obviously you know you don’t like being down in a series but we have been here before so we’ll use that experience and work to get better from it all right first question right here in the front on the right chad Jenny Carlson with the Oklahoma just felt like too many mistakes tonight and obviously fourth quarter didn’t close the way you guys would want what did you feel like was lacking tonight um I wouldn’t even say uh there’s a feeling of something being lacking um there’s a lot of areas we can clean up myself personally uh every guy on the roster that got in tonight can look in the mirror and see see where they can be better everybody who stepped out there can be better and uh you know it starts with me i got to be better uh there’s a couple opportunities that we gave away uh on the inbounds just you know taking care of the ball um you know there’s you could look at every single breakdown and and see a opportunity to be better uh we got to understand that no game’s going to be perfect next game’s not going to be perfect but uh you know we have to watch the film and see what we can do to put ourselves in a better position to win the game fourth row in the center yeah John Hollinger from the Athletic yeah Chad the fourth quarter in particular you guys scored 18 points missed nine of your last 10 shots what do you What do you think happened to you guys down the stretch that caused you to struggle so much um I’m going to have to go back and watch the film on that one i don’t want to say something without being able to see the whole picture um but obviously you know to win games uh of this magnitude at this level uh you know we have to be better than you know the stat you just threw out there uh you know we we need to close games close quarters close possessions you know it doesn’t just doesn’t just come down to the end of the game we got to figure out how to put ourselves in a better position you know for the whole 48 minutes second row here yeah chad Barry Tramble Tulsa World you scored 13 in the first quarter uh struggled after that what was working so well for you in the first quarter and then what went arry after that yeah I think uh you know I was playing aggressive um but uh you know I kind of got more to two feet when I got in the painted area and then uh you know the plays that didn’t go my way uh you know I felt like I got a little sped up at times and um you know I got a little bit of out of control in the paint um you know which is again another one of the areas where I I need to clean up and be better for the next game uh you know and I think there’s more than just that i got to you know watch the film and and and improve fourth row on the right dual Lorenzi with the Oklahoma chat um we just asked Alex in the locker room if this feels at all similar to the way the Denver series sort of unfolded and he was just saying that this is probably more frustrating because it is the finals i just wonder what’s what’s sort of the most frustrating part about the way these finals have unfolded and do you feel there are similarities to the Denver series uh I wouldn’t say that now is the time for emotions to be thinking about how you’re feeling uh emotional this emotional that like you know you kind of have to cut that out and uh just kind of look at the substance of what it is is we have a great opportunity here um and you know the great thing is we have another game coming up game four so uh we can’t be thinking about frustration or anything no matter how good it’s going how bad it’s going uh you know the focus can’t be on on your emotions has to be on uh you know what we’re trying to accomplish task at hand two-parter first of all n 19 turnovers I I believe um didn’t feel like the team we’ve watched how would you sort of characterize those turnovers and then I guess where did you feel Indie gained the upper hand down the stretch um I mean the turnovers were uncharacteristic obviously were usually pretty clean there um I give them credit i thought they played really well they played with great energy um they were physical they pressured uh they sustained it for much of the 48 i thought we did some good things i mean we got off to a really good start uh and then got off to a really good start in the third we we really controlled the first and third quarters um and had a really hard time in the second and the fourth so we’ll watch it you know it wasn’t uh all bad but we definitely have to play uh you know our style and impose our will uh for more of the 48 minutes if we want to come on the road and get a win second row on the left mark Daniel Belbia so yeah a lot of seemed like a lot of switches tonight and I know you guys are a switchable team but seemed like a lot of them didn’t come with much resistance do you feel like that gave them a little too many too many off too many good looks on on their end um I mean we’ll watch it you know every possession is different you know there’s definitely possessions where I thought they were the aggressor uh and we weren’t you know in the ball enough uh and there were some possessions that were really good i thought specifically to start the third quarter our pressure and physicality was right where it needed to be so we had a lot of good stretches of the game but um they had more good stretches than we did um and outplayed us over the course of 48 minutes um and obviously we need to play better if we want to give ourselves a better chance in game four first row Tim what did you see from uh your offense to keep your offense from get going in the fourth quarter and specifically from Shay only got up three shots didn’t get any assists down the stretch in that uh quarter yeah I mean they really outplayed us in the fourth you know give them credit i thought we were in really good shape coming out of the third quarter we had a five-point lead um and kind of weathered the storm of the second quarter you know that was a rough quarter and we were only down whatever we were at halftime four or six uh and we got control of the game coming out of the third um and then in the fourth quarter I just thought they really outplayed us on both ends i thought um they were in character in terms of their physicality their pressure on defense and then they were in character in terms of their pace uh on offense and they just stacked way more you know quality possessions in the fourth quarter than we did first here on the right Mark Jenn Carlson with the Oklahoma speaking of their defense I know Shay’s seen everything under the sun but did you sense additional physicality with him more double teams coming quicker what did you see just what they did defensively with him tonight and what what do you have to adjust going into four uh I didn’t think they really changed their schemes very much um I I just thought they were sharper um like I said with the physicality and the pressure um and their physicality was stronger than our force in a lot of those possessions not all of them you know obviously we had really good stretches of the game um but not enough good stretches of the game to to stack up to a win on the road second row on the left with the athletic um you don’t often see you know a stolen inbound uh in the NBA and I think McConnell got you at least three times for just catch layups uh how inexcusable do you view those turnovers and how much do you think that you know snowballed i mean those were big plays obviously but in terms of inexcusable I mean everybody’s out there competing and trying and um not going to place blame on those plays um I just thought their overall tone uh was better than ours for the majority of the game like I said I thought we had some really good stretches um but we just made uh one too many mistakes um and had one too many uh possessions on both ends of the floor where they were more um you know tied to their identity than we were you know but obviously those are costly plays second row middle yeah barry Traml told the world you know they say role players play better at home that’s clearly the play deal tonight math outs scores your whole bench what can you do to reverse that trend and and what specifically was so difficult about Mathan tonight yeah he was you know he’s had games like this in previous series he seems to have a game like this in every series and uh he’s a talented player he was uh really aggressive tonight he did a great job mcconnell did a great job you know their bench really came in the game and and was excellent you know I thought that was um had a lot to do with the second quarter the start they got off to I think was like 154 and then the start of the fourth quarter as well and I thought those guys were catalysts of that uh so you tip your hat to them you know those guys played really well they outplayed us the team outplayed us tonight uh we got to learn from it and then you know try to go be a better team in game four any other questions for coach second row right there they seemed intentional on getting into the paint early and often how much of a challenge was that for you guys is to slow their offense down when they’re that intentional um I thought that just the pace of their offense was was sharper than our uh pressure you know physicality tonight i thought that’s just what it came down to they got the ball ahead of us um more easily tonight than they did in the first two games um and that led to you know a lot of the downstream effects of their offense our defense tonight so we’ll look at it you know we think um you know we have some solutions but you know we got to go out there and do it but in the meantime you know give them credit they went and got that game they outplayed us for the majority of the game and they deserve to win last two right here in the front mark after you guys go down eight you give yourselves some opportunities whether it was Alex’s steel or just some different things but really didn’t capitalize is that just a microcosm of some of the bigger picture issues you saw or was something happening late just not being able to to to maybe close that gap a little bit yeah I mean when you’re down eight with that little time you know your margin for error is really thin you know so you know the solution to that first solution to that is don’t be down eight with two and a half to go if you want to win it’s hard to win that game uh in that situation you know we’re always going to try to do everything we can to try to close a gap and put game pressure on the opponent but they did a good job you know holding us off down the stretch i thought their execution uh even late in the fourth quarter when they had a lead was really really strong and um they did a good job slamming the door on the game last question back on the right hey coach Leonard from ESPN Brazil uh you guys had some missed free throws in the fourth uh do you feel like that played a big factor and do you credit that to the uh maybe the inexperience of the players or the environment uh what do you think about that um you know I’m I’m not you know I don’t really know to be honest with you you know usually we’re pretty good free throw shooting team you know we’ve been in a lot of environments stepped up in a lot of situations i have the utmost confidence in the team um but it was you know one of those I thought it was an uncharacteristic night in a lot of ways for us so uh we got to learn from it and then tap back into um you know being who we are you know in game four and if we do that I think we’ll have a much better chance to win

Hear from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, and Coach Mark Daigneault following Game 3 of the NBA Finals where the Thunder falls 107-116 to the Indiana Pacers.

0:00 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
5:09 Jalen Williams
8:12 Chet Holmgren
12:13 Coach Mark Daigneault

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