Latest / Bleacher Report / I gotta shoot more Anthony Edwards & Julius Randle Talk Game 1 Loss vs. OKC _ 2025 NBA Playoffs

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I gotta shoot more Anthony Edwards & Julius Randle Talk Game 1 Loss vs. OKC _ 2025 NBA Playoffs · Bleacher Report

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: And what did you feel like was working?
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: That's crazy?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And what did you feel like was working offensively for
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you guys in this game when it was working and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: when the offense got a little stuck, Uh, what were
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: you running into?
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: What was working? Just making the right play, taking out shots? Yeah,
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I think that was pretty.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Much what was working in the first half, Julius, in
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the first half, I think at twenty and really aggressive
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: shot was going in. Did what is did they adjust
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to you at all in the second half or what
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: changed for you half to half offensively?
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: I don't.
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: I don't really think they did anything different other than
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: just trying to run me off the three point line.
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: Uh A little bit. I mean that was really the
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: only thing different. I mean their defense is the same,
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: their heavy gaps, you know, boxes and elbows. So I
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: don't really think they did anything different. You know, they
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: just trying to get me off the three point line,
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: off my catch and shoots, and I.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Mean I was at uh getting downhill being put both
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: of y'all question both of y'all getting down Hell's kind
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: of me all you know strong suit, you know from
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: the last two series and even just you know kind
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: of you guys identity. What did you feel like, you know,
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: with their size coming into this matchup, was the the
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: biggest adjustment that you guys had to make, uh, giving
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: that you guys only had twenty points in the paint
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: this game, coming off of you know, seventy two versus
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: goats they in game five.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Uh, I mean they clogged the paint. That's what they do.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: They don't got much size down there, so they bank
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: on that's not making shots, I guess, cause every time
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: I go to the rim, it's like four people in
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: the paint. So yeah, I guess they just be clogging
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the paint. They put like five, four bodies in the
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: paint make you kick it out, So just keep making
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: the right play.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Julius, what do you think changed defensively for you guys
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: in the in the second half or or or was
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: it just a matter of them hitting more shots?
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: In the second half?
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: I mean the the first half, O was it forty
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: eight forty four? So I I mean, it wasn't like
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: it was a shootout in the first half, you know
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: what I mean. So it's just even if we're not
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: making shots, we still gotta defend at a high level.
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: And I mean we gave 'em thirty two, and the
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: third and then the fourth got away from us. Obviously
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: we gave 'em thirty eight, but Weller's misses a makes
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: we still got to defend at a high level, and
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: I think that was probably the difference in the second half.
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: Obviously we didn't shoot the ball uh as well as
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: we wanted to tonight, you know, But regardless of that, I
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: mean we really held 'em to a hundred points. Yeah,
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: uh until like the end of the game obviously, where
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: you know, they made some baskets. So we gotta who
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: gotta defend at a at a at a little bit
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: better uh level in that in that third quarter.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Ay and to Dante was seeing in the locker room
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: that it seemed like they were throwing different looks at
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: you guys every other possession on our offense. Is how
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: how did it make it maybe hard for hard for
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: you to read, or hard for the team to read,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: or just how did you kind of process their their defense? Uh?
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean hard to process, cause he right, they
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: it was different. It was kind of it was different
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: every time. I mean, heavy into gaps, sometimes trap the
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: ball screen, sometimes don't sometimes just run and jump it's
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: kind of similar to like AAU. They remind me of
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: like a AAU defensive team, just run and jump, fly around.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: So it was pretty good. Good to get it out
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: our system in game one, you know, so we'll be
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: ready for a game too. We should be ready.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Seems like one of the turning points in the game
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: is when Jaden got his third and fourth files early
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: in the third quarter.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Did his absence affect you, guys on e the rent
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: of the court? Do you think?
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Hell yeah. I mean he's the best defend that we
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: got and they usually put the five on him and
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: we played through him in the pocket and he makes
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: the right play over and over again. And he's super aggressive.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: So when he's not on the floor, it definitely hurts
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: for sure.
• 4:16
  Speaker 7: And the atain thing about their style of play that
• 4:18
  Speaker 7: is wearing over the course of a forty eight minute game,
• 4:22
  Speaker 7: where you know, maybe you can handle it in the
• 4:24
  Speaker 7: first half, we keep coming with that style. It gets
• 4:27
  Speaker 7: tougher as the game goes on.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Not really, I just got to I definitely got a
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: shoot board. I don't thirteen shots, but I'll say probably
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: just get off the ball a little more. Play without
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: the ball. I think that'd be the answer, because playing
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: on the ball, they're just double and then sit in the
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: gaps all day. So got to go watch some film
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: and pick it apart. We'll figure it out.
• 4:50
  Speaker 7: Did your ankle effect your shooting?
• 4:51
  Speaker 8: You know, Julius and just mentioned that, you know it's
• 4:56
  Speaker 8: going to get it out In Game one it was
• 4:58
  Speaker 8: kind of a similar situation.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: It's the Warriors.
• 5:01
  Speaker 8: What do you draw from that? If anything, the way
• 5:03
  Speaker 8: you guys were able to bounce back against them and
• 5:04
  Speaker 8: take that sort.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: We proved that we can do it. But we got
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: to make it happen. So you know, we can't just
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: be like, all right, we did it last serious, right,
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: you know what I mean, we're gonna do it again.
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: Like this is a great team. They've been playing great
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: basketball all year, so I mean we the good thing
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: is we proved to ourselves that we can do it,
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: but you know, we got to make it happen.
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: And I know you said that the ankle's not bothering you.
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: But of those thirteen shots, you only took one in
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: the paint all night? Is that more just the defense
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: that they're throwing at you or seeing something different the explosiveness,
• 5:33
  Speaker 6: That's not what we're used to seeing from you.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, they're just in the gaps. Yeah, it was
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: kind of hard to get to the paint, honestly. I mean,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: regardless if that's my game, but they definitely took that
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: aspect of my game away tonight from getting down here.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: So good job to those guys.
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: And then Nasrit's in the locker room, he just felt
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: like he liked the shots that he was getting, that
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: Dante was getting, that Nikhiel was getting. They just weren't falling.
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: So as that you guys are sort of the leaders
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: of this group, do you say something to them.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: After this or is it?
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: They're good. They know, they got great looks. She couldn't
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: make them. A lot of them went in and out.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: And that's gonna help us me and that's gonna help
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: me in June, you know, cause they usually make those shots.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: So we never really worried about them making shots.
• 6:21
  Speaker 8: Yeah, They'll be honest, Julie's was it as simple as
• 6:24
  Speaker 8: they started making shots and you guys had trouble making shots.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: What was the difference from the first half of the
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: second half.
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: Uh?
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: I mean yeah that you know, I said it before
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: our defense. Uh, in the second half you know, giving
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: them was that thirty five a quarter? You know, we
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: can't do that. You know, I'm always gonna hold myself
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: accountable five turnovers. It's way too much. I can't do that.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: Uh So, I mean we can say it's missus and
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: makes and it is a missing Make league. But regardless,
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: we gotta defend at a high level, and especially on
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: the rope, especially on the rope.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: So yeah, and this is only your guys third loss
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: of the postseason. I remember after the first lost against
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the Lakers, you said you're a little bit confused. Remember
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: there was like, oh, it's like a zone. After the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: loss against the Warriors, you said, do you understand postgame?
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: You're like, I understood what I need to do next
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: game to apply it. Where are you kind of on
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: that spectrum, Like do you feel like you know what
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the answers are to attack it?
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Next? Yeah, I feel great. Yeah yeah, just sitting
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: in the gaps and double team all day. So it
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: should be all right. Played out the battle a little more,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: get a little more cardio in. It should be good.
• 7:40
  Speaker 7: Thanks guys.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Than