Latest / Bleacher Report / Shai Gilgeous-Alexander & Jalen Williams React to Game 7 Win vs. Nuggets to Go to WCF

Transcript

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander & Jalen Williams React to Game 7 Win vs. Nuggets to Go to WCF · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Nine points the Thunder's Game seven win over the Knuckles.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: It couldn't got to the win Valency King, roll Talk
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Sports coach just mentioned Game seven is a game that
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: you wake up and you know you're gonna remember for
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the rest of your life. So a quick question for y'all,
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: how did y'all wake up? How did y'all go in
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: today's game?
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't really go to sleep, Okay, so I was
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: just excited. Sorry, that's all I got. I was excited
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to play.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: I was nervous, to be honest, just knowing, like what's
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: on the line. We've worked so hard the whole, like
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: eighty two game season, We've all worked so hard in
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: the summer, and to know, like if you don't bring
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: your a game, it could all be over with all
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: for nothing. But I think that nervousness like motivated me
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: and help me play today, like help me get my
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: own book them to the floor. And I used it
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: to my advantage.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: What's we got?
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Glad you all share?
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: You you just mentioned, you know, the the feelings leading
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: into this game, the season being on the line, but
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: but you know this is the first Western Conferent finals,
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: first for the team. I think in in nine years.
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: Could you sence in in these past few days and
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: just throughout this game after the wind, just sort of
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: what a win like this means to the building, to
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: the city, to to the franchise.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it means a lot, specifically for the city. They've
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: been so good all year. They've been behind us through
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: good through bad, Like it doesn't feel like it feels
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: like like no no team in the league has a
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: home court advands like we do. And that's all due
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: to them. With the T shirts, the cheering, the screaming,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: the chance, they they really give us like energy out there.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: And and we we've been a better team because of
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: them and having them behind us. And to know that
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: if we didn't bring it tonight it could be over
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: for them as well wasn't fair. And we we we
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: we wanted to play for them as well.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: And and m Mark was just in here saying that
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: it felt like you guys tiptoed into the game from
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: a confidence stand When did you short of sense the
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: game breakopen and that you guys really sort of leaned
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: into the game.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think like the nerves was natural. We obviously
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: didn't shoot. We actually shot horrible to start the game.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: But I knew like we were getting really good looks
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: and if we just stuck with it, that like we
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: would loosen up in the ball and you know, find
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: the basket. And it did so well. I I never, like,
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: I never was worried by the way we started. We
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: had the right intentions. We had tighten a little bit
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: up on defensive down the defensive end. But but once
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I I felt the flow of the game and we
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: had the right intentions and the right energy, I knew
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: it would turn around for us.
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: It seemed like the series was a battle all series
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: long about who could score in the paint better, who
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: could carve up the other team's defense. You guys had
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: sixty four points in the paint, Uh today, did you
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: feel like that was a product of better execution against
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: their zone or you know, playing off defense?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: What did you feel out there?
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Kind of to Two's point, just we had a very
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: good progression just throughout the series of like getting shots.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: That we wanted.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: He you know, sometimes they fall, sometimes they don't. But
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I think defensively we were really good and we were
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: able to get out and transition and that's giving us layups.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: And I think that's where a lot of the points
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: in the paint come from, and then that gives you
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: flow obviously going into the like going into like half
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: court offense. And I think that's kind of where we
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: got our confidence from and just trusting each other, trusting
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: our process.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: For Sha and Dub during during the offseason, you guys
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: bringing the ac and obviously he bought into the culture
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: of this team defensively, but to see him have that
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: kind of impact in the game seven, can you speak
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: to that. Yeah, he He's a player who rises to
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: the occasion. You like, he's a He's a player that
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: understands a moment and like controls what he can control.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: And he does that at a very high level. Like
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: nobody nobody does that at a at a high level
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: than him that I've ever played with. Like he is.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: He is always in the moment. He's always figuring out
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: how to change the game and and and better the team.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter if it's a Tuesday in February
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: in New Orleans or if it's a game seven tonight,
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Like he's given us one hundred percent attention energy, and
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: I think that's what's made him the NBA player he's become.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: And to have a guy down on your team, it's special.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: It raises the level of everybody else when you see
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: him just leading like that in that example. He's obviously
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: a big reason why I were as good as we
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: are as a basketball team.
• 4:32
  Speaker 7: Dubb, did you really not sleep at all?
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Messed up a little bit?
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I was just excited to play. Like you
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: get you never know how many game sevens you're gonna get,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and it's like an opportunity to.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: To be great.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: So I was just more excited about playing and getting
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to what was.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: That that's tripper, I think, Wes, Yeah.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, But I was just I was like,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: I think I was probably just like hyped up to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: play and excited. That's really it. You know, those those
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: nights it's hard to like kind of like go to sleep.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: And Shay asked you after game six, kind of how
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: you thought Double would respond tonight?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: How do you think he played? It's terrible, Nah, he
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: was amazing. Double was a big reason for our like
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: little stretch of the lead in the second quarter gave
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: us momentum. But I said this out there after the game,
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: like his growth as a basketball player, it's been obviously
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: like you've seen it all year, but his growth mentally
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: has been more impressing to me. He he wouldn't have
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: played the way he played today last year and I
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: know that one hundred percent, and to see him take
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: that step forward is Ah, it's a really proud moment
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: for me, just knowing like what he goes on a
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: day to day basis, knowing where he comes from, like
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: that's really my brother, and to see him get in
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: those areas, it's it's it's special, it's fun, and it
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: makes this this whole experience a little bit like more special.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: But yeah, Dub, other than that, Dubs like a great
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: basketball player and he brought his a game when we
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: needed the most and that's what that's what makes you
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: the top of echelon, upper epchelon of this league. And
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Scott's limit for Dub as we all know.
• 6:24
  Speaker 7: Well, if you guys comment on just the ports off
• 6:27
  Speaker 7: turnoffs returned the last couple of games, you really hadn't
• 6:29
  Speaker 7: had that big advantage. But tonight kind of like beating friends,
• 6:32
  Speaker 7: got a lot of easy buckets, all right, Yeah.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: That's when we're at our best starts defensively and then
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: we're able to play in space with the athletes in
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: the suited that we have. Yeah, but starts defensively, and
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: once we brought that tonight, we were able to distretch
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: the leader that too. Oh yeah, just this that's how
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: we play.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I think I've said this earlier this year too, just
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: like on like different things, Like our defense is not
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: like predicated on us stealing the ball, you know, I mean,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: but it's just more about the approach that we have,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: like how competitive and how right we can be and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: like how many how many rotations we can make, you
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like we're like trying to be
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: as aggressive as possible and cover up for each other
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and then if that results in a turnover, great, But
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: you know, we're just trying to like contest every shot,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: rebound every time, like and you just kind of stack
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: within our defensive like possessions and then that's what makes
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: us good.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: There's a question for both of you guys.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Obviously a lot of excitement nerves going.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Into this game. What did you draw on anything?
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Did you reach out to anyone?
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: Didn'tbody give you advice on how to approach a game
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: like this? No? I turned my phone off, honestly, Okay,
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: I just wanted to, like as best as I could
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: block out all the noise, just like enjoy the time.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: We had two days off for the first time in
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: a little bit, enjoyed the time with my family, Like
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: I knew this moment was coming, and the nurse there's
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: sat in my stomach for the two days. But I
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: tried to like just think about it as as least
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: possible as I could, And I think I did a
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: pretty pretty good job handling that came out ready to
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: play it there.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: When you say turn it off, you mean like do
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: not disturb and like maybe your mom will get through.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Or like yeah, no social media basically and then if
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: you if you have my number, you can have my
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: number text me.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: So yeah, Jalen, I don't know if you can take
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: the twenty thousand foot view this close to the end
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: of a game seven, but just what you guys have
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: come through to now get to this point, to go
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: to the finals. What are you proudest of? Just with
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: where you guys are in this moment.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I think exactly that, like we are where feet are,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: like being present in the moment, not letting like too
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: many outside stuff like control we're doing any game, And
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I think that was most impressive to everybody, like no
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: matter what was going on, like we stuck together and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: we were just kind of like uncommon in that way,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: like well even had like team dinner like after a loss.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I think that just shows like how connected we've been,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and we've been doing that the whole time. So we're
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: just with each other regardless of what happens. I think
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: that's what makes us a good team.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Shay.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: As you think about now where you guys are headed,
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: only four teams left in these playoffs, you're the top
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: seed and really some of those other top seeds have gone.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: What is this sort of set up for you in
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: your mind?
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Nothing at all. We play a really good team in
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: the timber Wolves, and we gotta try to beat them
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: four times before they beat us four times. And that's
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: all I'm worried about. All our team is worried about,
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: like bub just said, just trying to be where our
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: feet are in the moment and see what's in front
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: of us and try to attack it and come out
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: on the right end of it. I think that's why
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: we've gotten this far in the season, and we're gonna
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: continue to do something.
• 9:40
  Speaker 8: Yeah, you guys, take it personally twenty seven twenty six.
• 9:43
  Speaker 8: It was your lead that did it and you gotta
• 9:45
  Speaker 8: whistle and the crowd just goes crazy. It's one of
• 9:46
  Speaker 8: the bigger pops of the night, just kind of what
• 9:48
  Speaker 8: was going through your head after the struggles you've had
• 9:51
  Speaker 8: with this crowd is going crazy for you.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: Hag you foul.
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah he missed the pre throw.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Honestly, it'd be so loud in there. It's really cool
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: to have those moments, so I always try and like
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: relish those in the game. And yeah, it's just really
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: fun to play in there. So we have a very good.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Fan base for uh, both of you guys.
• 10:20
  Speaker 9: Coach talked about just the magnitude of this game before
• 10:23
  Speaker 9: you guys came in here, talking about how he woke
• 10:26
  Speaker 9: up this morning knowing that he'll always remember because it's
• 10:28
  Speaker 9: a game seven. How much of that halftime break played
• 10:32
  Speaker 9: a part in the sense of you guys coming out
• 10:33
  Speaker 9: and putting together that tremendous third quarter. I mean just
• 10:35
  Speaker 9: to you know, take that kind of like a deep
• 10:38
  Speaker 9: breath and know it's the only time you really kind
• 10:40
  Speaker 9: of get that brief time to all, you know, be
• 10:43
  Speaker 9: together for that little moment.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Did you think that played a part.
• 10:45
  Speaker 9: Or just things come together just in that third quarter.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Organically, we honestly had, like I think, besides Game two,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: we haven't been really good coming out of halftime this
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: this series, and that was on the top of everyone's
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: mind at halftime. We wanted to make sure we got
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: out to a good start.
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: We obviously built a pretty good leave because it was
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: like fourteen going into halftime. But the type of team
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: they are, we've seen it all series fourteen is it's
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: never enough and we knew that, and we wanted to
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: come out and throw the first punch we call it,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: and and I think we did a good job of
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: that tonight.
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: Yeap.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 11:17
  Speaker 7: Shay Mark and Caruso at different points in this series
• 11:20
  Speaker 7: talked about how you guys were looking forward to playing
• 11:23
  Speaker 7: the Nuggets because of how good of a team you
• 11:25
  Speaker 7: got and how much respected, how much respect you had
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: for them. What are uh some of the things that
• 11:30
  Speaker 7: you've learned about this team, you guys team yuh now
• 11:34
  Speaker 7: that see see seasons Excuse me now if the series
• 11:37
  Speaker 7: is over, learned about us?
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, nothing I didn't already know. But like we we
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: we can win no matter of the environment, no matter
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: the type of game. It could be ugly, it could
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: be pretty, could be high scoring, could be low scoring,
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: could be a lot of free throws, it could be
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: no free throws. Like, no matter what it is, we
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: can we can find a way to win. And I
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: think that that's that's very important this time of year.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: But yeah, like I said, I already knew that about us,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: and we have to keep implying that going forward.
• 12:08
  Speaker 7: Thus we got up, we go. We've got Michael actually.
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: Dub going back to plus minus.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: We have Cruso and case and coming off the bench.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: They have the two highest plus minus and off the
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: bench in Game seven history.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: These past three games, what have they meant to you?
• 12:25
  Speaker 7: Guys?
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: And sort are just closing out the series.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: They've been great. They've hit big shots, They've done a
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: lot of little stuff that people won't know about, just
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: as far as like being in the right coverage, pursuing
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: playing good defense. Like they've just been really really solid.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: AC switched on to Yokic for a lot of that
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: game too, So it's like for hit them to like
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: answer that task and be willing to kind of do
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: whatever speaks to what kind of players they are. And
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: that's why they're.
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: Here Mark Mark said that this was your guys best
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: game on defense activity wise.
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: What do you guys think.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Led to that do or die? Yeah? Since urgency, we
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: knew that if we didn't, like I said, bring our
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: aid and game on the defensive end of the floor, wuh,
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: that our season could be over and nobody in the
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: locker om was ready for that. We uh, above all
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: wanted to control the controllables, and defense is one of
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: those things, being active, communicating, helping each other. You can't
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: always control if the ball goes in on the other
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: than the floor, but defense you can always control. And
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: we knew that, and uh, that's why we were as
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: active as were tonight Light show. You and.
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: You and have played against each other a lot now,
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: but just from a personal standpoint, what's it gonna be
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: like matching.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Up with him?
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Uh in a conference finals? Yeah, it'll be very fun.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: It's like, uh, it's hard to explained even explained, like
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: if you know how close we are. He's l literally
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: like my my second brother. He's been through every stage
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: of life with me and picking up a basketball to
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: going to prep school to making the NBA. Like we've
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: gone through every situation together. For us, for both of
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: us to be where we are is is special. To
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: compete against each other, it's even more special. But I
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: am trying to take It's like his head off for
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: Sure, Okay, completely know where the shape would in