Latest / Bleacher Report / SGA, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams Talk Game 6 Loss vs. Pacers _ 2025 NBA Finals

Transcript

SGA, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams Talk Game 6 Loss vs. Pacers _ 2025 NBA Finals · Bleacher Report

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The way I see it is we suck tonight. We
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: have to learn the lessons and we have one game
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: for everything, for everything we've worked for, and so do they,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and the better team Sunday will.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Win second World Michael.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Jay Michael Graanch from Sportsnet in Toronto. You know you've
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: been under pressure this whole series from them. Defensively, tonight
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: they were able to get into the ball with more success,
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: I guess, than they've had. You know, did they do
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: anything different? The turnover numbers for you were unusually I
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: any explanation.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they yeah, I don't even know. They just turned
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: this over a bunch. They they didn't pressure a full
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: court like they have been, which led to more turnovers.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I didn't expect that, But whatever it is, they did
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: it right. And if we want to win on Sunday,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: we got to take care of the ball. More story, second.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: Round, the right Milica over here, Malika andrews est pan.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna fall up on that real quick. And then
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: a different question. But they picked you up just much
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: higher than they had been. They were picking you up
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: by like sixty feet in the first five games and
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: from thirty nine ish feet today. Did you feel that
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: difference was that maybe part of it that led to.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: That they were definitely lower on the pickups. I'm not
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: sure like some of them. I think it was just
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: like carelessness and not being focused, not being as engaged.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: They played harder than us tonight as well, and when
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a team plays harder, they usually turned the other team over.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: So it's probably a combination of multiple things.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: The NBA Finals versus the second round, but this series
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: has so many similarities to the Denver series. The other
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: team goes up to one, this sort of game six
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: let down. Can you learn anything from your punch back
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: there that you can apply here?
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: They like the way we felt in that series is
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it's a three three series zero zero. You have one
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: game to advance and the better team will win. And
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I think it's the exact same thing. Everything that's happened
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: in the series, you try to learn from and you
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: try to put it all together for one night and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: see where it takes you.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Third row Tim shaded, Uh, did you guys, you individually,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: did you feel the weight of the of the chance
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: to clinch a championship tonight?
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Definitely in the back of our minds for sure. Now
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: we didn't play like it at all, and that's why
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: the night went the way it did. We got exactly
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: what we deserved, what we earned, and we have to
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: own that. Mark Spears, ESPN Andscape Shay. You played in
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: One and Out and see a tournament games, Olympics, what
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: is this like? Can that time help you at all?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Learn from that?
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: And also being who you are, do you have to
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: do you feel like you have to put a cape
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: on to ensure the championship?
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all those experiences help me for sure, THEO like
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: One and Done experiences, do or die games. There's lessons
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: from every game, but those games in particular, for sure
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: are going to help. And I don't feel like I
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: have to do anything other than just be the best
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: version of myself, and I think that goes for everyone
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: else in the room. We just have to bring what
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: we bring to the table, what we've brought to the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: table all year, and bringing it our best come Sunday.
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: For sure, hear Jenny, Hey, Jenny Carlson with the Oklahoma
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: and take me onto that bench in the fourth quarter.
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: You haven't sad a lot of fourth quarters in situations
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: like tonight where you guys are losing what's sort of
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: going through your mind and how does that how does
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: that time you're on the bench in the fourth go
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: just mentally, how you're processing.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Things, thinking about what you could have did better or
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: what I could have did better. Tonight, Also like watching
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the group on the floor was impressive. They were great.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: They haven't played all series and then they go out
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: there and play as hard as they did. Was inspiring
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and they were really good. Tonight kind of taught me
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: a lesson and then just trying to do everything I can,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: everything I can learn from to get ready for the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: next game.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: First question here right here the right, Joel.
• 4:21
  Speaker 7: Joel larns you with the Oklahoma and shape a little
• 4:23
  Speaker 7: bit of a two parter. I think the broadcast cult
• 4:26
  Speaker 7: you're saying it's Sundays for all the marbles. I just
• 4:29
  Speaker 7: I wonder how you're viewing this opportunity and sort of
• 4:34
  Speaker 7: the weight of it.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: So one game for everything you ever dreamed of. If
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: you win it, you get everything. If you lose it,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: you get nothing. But it's that simple.
• 4:49
  Speaker 7: Are you sensing any differences in the difficulty of closing
• 4:53
  Speaker 7: out a finals versus closing out any other playoff series?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: No, I see it's the same thing like in round two,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: if we had lost, I would have been just as disappointed.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: We would have went home and I see it would
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: have been over and if we lose, seasons over in
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the wrong way. So either way, I would have been
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: extremely disappointed. So I don't think it's much different.
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: Jenny Carlson with the Oklahoma and I felt like even
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: early on you guys turnovers just kind of out of sorts.
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: What what got you guys guys off track and had
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: sort of an uncharacteristic performance tonight.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: I don't think it was.
• 5:32
  Speaker 8: It was one factor, but uh, no matter what it is,
• 5:37
  Speaker 8: you know, we have to be better kind of course
• 5:40
  Speaker 8: correcting getting ourselves back on the right track. You know,
• 5:44
  Speaker 8: I personally myself could be better. Uh, you know, trying
• 5:48
  Speaker 8: to help us get things going in the right way.
• 5:52
  Speaker 8: So we're gonna watch the film and see where we
• 5:56
  Speaker 8: can be better. And at the end of the day,
• 6:01
  Speaker 8: you know, we still have a great opportunity Game seven. Uh,
• 6:04
  Speaker 8: you know we have to come out and execute.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: First row Middlebury.
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Barry Trammell Tulso world check. What's the explanation for
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: game like that where literally nothing went right or worked
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: for you.
• 6:23
  Speaker 8: Again, I don't think it's a one sentence answer or
• 6:26
  Speaker 8: one word answer.
• 6:27
  Speaker 9: Uh.
• 6:28
  Speaker 8: But at the end of the day, no matter there
• 6:32
  Speaker 8: there really is no explanation, there's no excuse. You know,
• 6:35
  Speaker 8: we have to be better. We have to execute better. Uh,
• 6:37
  Speaker 8: you know, from top to bottom, myself included. Uh, and
• 6:41
  Speaker 8: I'm gonna look and see where I can be better
• 6:43
  Speaker 8: and uh, you know, do my best to execute in
• 6:47
  Speaker 8: Game seven coming.
• 6:48
  Speaker 10: Up for sure, here Joe Joe meside of the Oklahoma
• 6:51
  Speaker 10: and check. How do you guys as a team balance
• 6:55
  Speaker 10: the disappointment of not closing it out tonight versus knowing
• 6:58
  Speaker 10: that that you do have that Game seven to fall
• 7:01
  Speaker 10: back on.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Sorry, y'all.
• 7:04
  Speaker 8: Uh, just trying to cut the emotion out of it.
• 7:09
  Speaker 8: Obviously that that's frustrating, that's it's not fun. Uh, nobody's
• 7:14
  Speaker 8: happy right now. But you can't let the emotions kind
• 7:18
  Speaker 8: of sidetrack you from what we need to do, uh
• 7:22
  Speaker 8: leading up to and during the game coming up.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 7:27
  Speaker 8: You know we've had wins and losses throughout the playoffs,
• 7:30
  Speaker 8: so it's kind of similar mentality. Uh, you know, turn
• 7:35
  Speaker 8: the page, don't forget what just happened, but see where
• 7:38
  Speaker 8: you can be better and then try and apply it
• 7:40
  Speaker 8: going forward.
• 7:42
  Speaker 9: Second row middle Jess Martinez of the Oklahoma and Chat.
• 7:46
  Speaker 9: For a series that's had such drastic swings and momentum,
• 7:49
  Speaker 9: just how valuable is it to have this game seven
• 7:51
  Speaker 9: at home in front of the crowd.
• 7:57
  Speaker 8: Obviously it's a great opportunity. You know, there's only you
• 8:02
  Speaker 8: could ask every team in the NBA. Every team would
• 8:04
  Speaker 8: would take this opportunity, to take this chance, and uh,
• 8:07
  Speaker 8: you know we're no different. Uh, and it's on us
• 8:10
  Speaker 8: to go out there and make the most of it.
• 8:12
  Speaker 7: Bro Joel Joel Lorenzi to Oklahoma and Chat. Obviously, you
• 8:15
  Speaker 7: guys do this playoff front have had so many different,
• 8:19
  Speaker 7: unique and new experiences. What did you sort of learn
• 8:21
  Speaker 7: about the difficulties of closing out of finals?
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: I'd say it's.
• 8:32
  Speaker 8: Very similar to a close out game in any series. Uh,
• 8:36
  Speaker 8: you know, no team's just gonna roll over and go home. Uh,
• 8:40
  Speaker 8: you know, it's gonna be really physical, there's not gonna
• 8:42
  Speaker 8: be any favors from the officiate, and there's uh, you know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 8: it's it's really you have to make it happen. It's
• 8:50
  Speaker 8: not gonna happen by accident. So uh, you know, we
• 8:54
  Speaker 8: have to learn the lesson from tonight and come back
• 8:55
  Speaker 8: and be be better, all right.
• 8:58
  Speaker 10: First question, Jenny in the front.
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: Jalen Jenny Carlson with the Oklahoma and the turnovers tonight
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: uncharacteristic for you guys to lose that turnover battle. What
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: sort of contributed to that? Shay had a bunch, you
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: had more than normal. It just felt like everybody was
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: just not taking care of the ball very well.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: It just got sticky. I feel like when you our
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: defense wasn't very good and when you're constantly taking the
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: ball out and you're planning it to set defense over
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: and over again, that's part of it. Other part we
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: didn't do a good job trusting each other to make
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: the next play like we did game five. So we'll
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: look at some things. Obviously they made a couple of adjustments,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: so we'll look at that too, But a lot of
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: it was, yeah, just not trusting each other and make
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: the right plays. And that that starts with me being better,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: figuring out different ways to get my teammates involved and
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: stuff like that. So good news is we have another
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: game to figure it out.
• 10:06
  Speaker 10: First Road Joel.
• 10:08
  Speaker 7: Joel Loren's with the Oklahoma uh, a little bit of
• 10:11
  Speaker 7: a two parter.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: You guys have talked a lot about.
• 10:15
  Speaker 7: The human elements of know these games. I wonder at
• 10:19
  Speaker 7: any point did sort of the human element of knowing
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: you had a Game seven creep in and what did
• 10:24
  Speaker 7: you sort of learned today about how different it might
• 10:28
  Speaker 7: feel to close the finals versus closing any other series.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Now, the human element, well, I can't speak for my
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: whole team, but the human element didn't creep in for
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: me until we got blown out, So I didn't start
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: thinking about Game seven until we walked off the floor
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: or like really like when the game was kind of
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: out of reach. But I think we had the right
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: mindset coming into it. I think there was different things
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: that we didn't do in the game well that hurt us.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: But closing out in the finals is different from playoff
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: game because it's like it's the end of the season,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, and you play for so
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: long that it's it just has more weight to it. Obviously,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: you want to win a championship and you don't want
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: it to feel like it was all for nothing. So
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: that's been the biggest difference between like closing out now
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: as opposed to like a Denver series or Minnesota, and
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: I feel like they probably felt that way too, Like
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: for them being down three to two, knowing that your
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: season's like on the line and you're in the finals
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: just has more weight to it.
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: Second round the right, Milica JW.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: You and I spoke a couple of days ago about
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: the feeling of having expectations and then not meeting them
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: that you all had, for example, last season, and now
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: it's coming down to one game, winner take all. It's
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: why you play. But does that thought of not having
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: that same feeling again now start to creep in knowing
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: it's zero zero again essentially in this series.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that feeling is never really left for me. Again.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I don't want to speak for the whole team, like
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: we're all that's the human part of you know, playing
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: and playing a sport, as everybody's gonna feel some type
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: of way. But I've definitely had that feeling, like the
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: whole year. I've had that feeling in December. You work
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: really hard in the summer to get better at things,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: and when they don't don't come to light the way
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: you want to, it's kind of easy to get off
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: track and feel sorry for yourself. But At the same time,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I try and like be where my feet are, Like
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: I'm in the NBA finals at twenty four years old
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: in year three, So I always try and keep that
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: into perspective. And I'm just going to go into this
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: next game and try and play hard and play better
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: in what I did tonight, and wherever the chips fall,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: they fall. But I'm not gonna go after this game
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: and think like, oh, I didn't play hard or you know,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: whatever the case may be. Just relition the opportunity.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: That's question.
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: Barry, Barry Trammel tulse the world. It's no crime to
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: lose a game six on the road, Jagon, But to
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: lose like this, is there a concern that you emboldened
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: the Pacers and gave them even more confidence for a
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: tough road game seven on the road.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Uh? That probably has something to do with it a
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: little bit. If they would have won by one, they
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: probably would have walked out of this this game of confidence,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And that's that's what makes
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: them a good team. That's what makes us a good team.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Is like we both played our identity regardless of what's
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: going on. So I mean, they're gonna go into Game
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: seven and confident, and so are we.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you, jealous