Thabo Sefolosha said the Thunder isn’t overthinking the game tonight and will play tough, play for one another and play like its game seven, adding that the team is prepared.
Kendrick Perkins said Serge Ibaka has been talking more than ever on the defensive end, and that’s helped a ton. He joked that they might not understand everything Ibaka is saying, but he’s out there communicating, so that’s good.
Perkins noted that it’s possible to look at the film from Game Three and find things the team wants to replicate, but he wasn’t satisfied. He said that there were still things the team wanted to clean up, from increasing leads to not fouling as much to putting together better quarters.
Thabo Sefolosha responded to the claim that the pressure is on the Thunder, saying he’s perfectly okay with that. “It can be on us,” Sefolosha said. “That’s fine with me.”
Head Coach Scott Brooks addressed the notion that the Thunder is still a young team despite playing in its fifth Playoff series. Brooks gave the example of Kevin Durant’s age, saying that he is going to be young for a while and in three years he’s going to be 26, which is still relatively young.
Brooks talked about role players like Daequan Cook and Derek Fisher, who knocked down big three pointers in Game Three. He said that Cook stayed focused and stuck with it, that he’s a great spot up guy and a great spacer of the floor that runs to the corner.
Nick Collison talked about wanting to get off to a fast start and playing hard from the opening tip. He said that the Thunder can’t ease into any of these playoff games because it’s too tough to win that way.
Kevin Durant said the first three or four minutes will be key tonight, and that the team will try to take the crowd out of the game early. Durant said that he and his teammates will “Just try to be us”, and that if they do that it will work out.