Thunder Practice Report | Mar. 11, 2022
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 From Thunder practice today, there was a slight injury update for Trey man.
00:04 Now he did practice a little bit yesterday, tweaked his ankle a little bit,
00:07 according to Mark Dagnalt and did not practice today, but
00:10 there will be another update available tomorrow.
00:13 That being said though, the Thunder have had three days in between their last game
00:17 and their game tomorrow against Memphis.
00:19 And coach Dagnalt said just what that can do in preparation when going against
00:23 the Grizzlies. >> More so than like a back to back,
00:25 those are the toughest.
00:27 When we have this amount of time, a day like yesterday,
00:31 today was a typical day before the game.
00:33 A day like yesterday, we're more focused on our base and
00:37 trying to clean up some fundamental things rather than trying to jump ahead.
00:41 We're trying to do things that are a little bit more sustainable than just
00:43 the next game.
00:44 But we hit some Memphis today like we normally would.
00:46 >> We can say Gildas Alexander was for
00:48 the Thunder when he came back from his injury.
00:50 Ja Morant has been on quite the tear since coming back from the All-Star break.
00:54 He has been averaging 27.7 points per game.
00:57 And Mark Dagnalt said today just what it will take to stop a player like Ja.
01:02 >> I think you have to be aware of kind of where the teams are in their season.
01:06 And clearly they're playing at a really high level and
01:08 he specifically is playing a really high level since the All-Star break.
01:11 And so I think you have to be aware of that cuz if you just kind of waltz
01:16 into the game and you're not expecting that level of aggression, it can hit you hard.
01:23 Specifically, he's been really dynamic at the rim, even for him.
01:27 He's a dynamic player there, but he's finishing, he's getting there a lot, and
01:30 he's finishing at a really high clip in there right now.
01:33 And so that's the one thing that I think he was just coming off an injury when we
01:37 played him, so he wasn't in stride the way he is right now.
01:42 So we certainly have to have a heightened awareness.
01:43 >> Yeah, and players like Oleski Pokaszewski, Vite Krejci, and
01:46 Isaiah Roby are really taking advantage of the additional minutes that they've
01:50 been given due to so many injuries for the Thunder.
01:53 Head coach, Mark Donald,
01:54 said today just what he's learned about each player through this process.
01:56 >> We're learning more about Poku right now, and he's only a year and a half, and
02:00 we're still learning about Basley, the guy's the longest tenured guy here.
02:04 So we're always trying to learn, but a more complete picture,
02:07 he plays with a motor, he has a good sense on offense of how to play.
02:12 And then there's areas where he needs to improve, I think,
02:15 fundamentally, defensively, especially for a guy that's his size with his motor.
02:19 If you combine that with some pretty tight fundamentals,
02:23 he could be a much higher impact defender than he is today at this point in time.
02:27 So he needs to improve there a little bit, I think.
02:30 And then offensively, it's just a matter of the game slowing down for
02:32 him playing inside the system.
02:33 But he seems to have a good court sense out there, which has been occurring.
02:38 >> And that has been today's Thunder practice report.
02:40 Reporting for SI Thunder, I'm Christine Butterfield.
02:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]