The Thunder is fully aware of the incredible opportunity that lays in front of it heading into tomorrow night’s Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. There is certainly a level of excitement over the way in which the Thunder has turned this series around, but the team lives in the moment, realizing full well that there is plenty of work to be done. The team will have to play its best 48 minutes of basketball to beat the Spurs and get that necessary fourth win.
“We are just trying to be who we are,” Fisher said. “We have to figure out a way to win another game for all of this to make sense.”
In order to stick true to the core tenets and team concepts, the Thunder will take to the film room, practice floor and weight room to continue the process that has always helped them improve- work. Led by young players like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who let their work ethic push them every day, Head Coach Scott Brooks’ club hopes to continue developing while gaining playoff experience.
“We feel that our worth is through our work and if we continue to work hard and we continue to play together, we’re going to have some good results,” Brooks said.
Below are the Fast Break Points from Tuesday's media session:
- Brooks on the way the Thunder stuck together as a family in Game 5: “I think we had at least three bad stretches of that game last night, some individual play and some team play, where we could have easily separated and went sideways, but we did not do that,” Brooks said.
- Brooks, continuing on how that attitude is important in all situations: “If you’re going to be a family you have to stick together through some tough times,” Brooks said. “It’s easy to like each other as a family member. It’s easy to like your family when things are going well, but you can’t leave them when things are going bad.”
-Daequan Cook, after Game 5, on returning home to play at Chesapeake Energy Arena: “We have a lot of confidence, we get to go back home and play in front of our crowd who has been behind us through it all,” Cook said. “It’s important for us to just keep playing the way we’ve played these past few games.”
- Brooks, after the game last night, on the whole team stepping up: “Everybody did their job,” Brooks said. “We played about as hard as we could possibly play and defensively they’re not an easy team to guard. We really did a good job of challenging every possession.”
- Cook, last night, on the experience the Thunder has gained over the years to help it mature: “We’ve been in a lot of tough games this whole season,” Cook said. “That prepared us for tonight’s game, knowing how good San Antonio is. Just for us to hold our composure, take it play after play, knowing how important it was to make that run.”