Thunder-Sixers Rewind: Post-Game Quotes

This is the first of what I hope to be a recurring piece, where I pull quotes from the Philadelphia 76ers’ PR staff’s post-game email and compile them into a brief article. Here are noteworthy soundbites following the team’s 117-115 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder Saturday.

Brett Brown

On the final shot of the game:

“You know, I thought we were trying to create an environment where Ben could attack as best he could, keep the court spread, cut the driving line off, and run a dribble handoff to Jimmy. We were out of timeouts at that stage. Really at that point, you’re begging, like you know, five seconds left, no timeouts, you’re trying to get whatever you can. I’m backing Ben Simmons on the fly. I wish we got it out of bounds quicker to create more of an environment that was moving and a little bit more disorganized, but there’s a lot of stuff that went on before that.”

On trapping Dennis Schroder after Joel Embiid’s free throw:

“We were out of timeouts. You know, you never feel comfortable, I don’t, letting someone just dribble down a clock and them getting the last shot. I don’t like doing that. And so you have choices. You can either hit it while it’s static and they can see you coming, or you can do it sooner and try to take advantage of doing stuff early so you have the clock to use from our end. We just decided to do it sooner, the concept I would keep, then you have decisions on what level do you do it. We decided to do it in full court and it’s a little bit easier after a free throw.”

On Paul George’s game-winner and if they expected him to get the ball:

“Yeah, and you know, we talked about it. We talked about it. There are two looks that they are good at, that’s one of them, and they did a good job of getting him the ball. He made a tough shot, Jimmy was all over him you know, it’s a tough shot. We give Paul credit.”

Ben Simmons

General post-game thoughts:

“It sucks to lose, but we learn. We got to get better. At the end of the day, we want to be winning when it comes to playoffs. This is not everything, this game isn’t everything. We are going to learn from it, we’re going to go back and watch film as a team and stay strong.”

On areas of team-wide improvement:

“I think communication in terms of what we were in defensively, but that comes with learning.”

On if the team has improved defensively:

“I think everybody is just playing harder and realizing that there’s another level. I said today was similar to a playoff game with physicality, calls and the level of talent you’re playing against, everybody kind of fouling you, and I think it’s great for us.”

Joel Embiid

General post-game thoughts:

“Pissed that we lost that game. We had it. I don’t know.”

On his dust-up with Russell Westbrook:

“I don’t know. I think I was going for the block and I think he lost the ball, but I was already in the air and I don’t know what, why he was mad. I have no idea.”

On the game’s intensity:

“It’s physical. Big bodies all over the place, athletic. A lot of athletic guys flying down the court. I just think it’s the physicality.”

Jimmy Butler

On his poor shooting:

“Just missed. You know, one of those nights. That’s just part of the game to tell you the truth. Like I tell so many other people, including myself, you still got to find other ways to change the game, whether it be rebounding, defending, making the right passes. You know, it’s not going to be your night to make shots every night.”

On the team’s comeback:

“It just shows that we stick with it no matter what. Lots of things to learn from on both ends of the floor in any and every situation, especially late game. I wouldn’t say we’d rather [lose] because nobody wants to lose, but better now than when the playoffs roll around. I think everybody’s heads still high. We learned. Obviously, nobody wants to lose, but I think that’s a really good team that came in here and played some really good basketball.”

On what led to the early deficit:

“Early on, we weren’t getting stops like that. They were getting whatever shots they wanted. We weren’t boxing out like we talked about how we were going to do. We all know that Steven Adams is an incredible offensive rebounder, he gets them a lot of extra possessions. Then, we started to get some stops, started to make some shots and got back into the game. I think that’s the game of basketball, that’s a game of runs.”