NBA FINALS: THUNDER VS. PACERS

June 7, 2025

Luguentz Dort

Oklahoma City Thunder

Practice Day

Q. After Game 1, being able to go back and watch the film with the guys, what are the bigger takeaways in terms of controllables for Game 2?

LUGUENTZ DORT: They are a good team and they are not going to give up, whatever points they are down by. We have to play the full game.

On our side, just really execute until the end. It's a 48-minute game. Just not get lost in the score or anything, just to really finish the game.

Q. Would you have liked to be the defender against Haliburton on the last play?

LUGUENTZ DORT: The last shot? I mean, no, we have a lot of guys that can guard on our team. Cason Wallace is a big one. He's one of the defenders in the league. We all felt confident of him being in front of him on that last shot. He made a tough shot. Got to give credit to him. Cason did his job, for sure.

Q. After the game, Mark said being disruptive is the important part of your defense. Were you disruptive enough in the second half?

LUGUENTZ DORT: I would say so, yeah. They are a good team, and they did a better job taking care of the ball. But the way that we were active, I don't think it has really changed. I don't think that side of the floor was the problem in that game.

Q. Forced a lot of turnovers but weren't as effective as converting the points off turnovers. How can you improve that in Game 2?

LUGUENTZ DORT: We've got to do a better job of that. Finding the open man, if it's playing faster -- whatever the game is giving us, after we turn them over, we have to go out and execute that.

Q. You guys were an incredibly successful defense all year, and also a high-foul defense. Historically, most teams that are really good defensively normally stay away from fouls. You guys, high-foul defense. Orlando was a really good defense this year -- a high-foul defense. It's a trend we're seeing in the league. What's the balance of you don't want to foul too much but it's a result of you guys being aggressive? What's the balance?

LUGUENTZ DORT: Yeah, honestly, I don't think we have too much control of it. We're going to play the way that we do. We're going to be aggressive. We're going to play like we do. But at the end of the day, the refs are going to make the call, and if they feel like it's a foul, they'll do it. We've had a lot of success at that end of the floor, and I don't think it's going to stop based on what the refs are calling. But they feel like it's a foul, they are going to call it.

Q. Did you notice them change anything in the second half in terms of being able to take care of the ball better, or did you guys not do as much of the stuff as in the first half to get him out of sync and out of rhythm and throwing the ball around the way they did?

LUGUENTZ DORT: I would say a little bit of both. They took care of the ball, which got to give credit to them. They found better shots that they wanted to shoot. I don't think our aggressiveness changed that much.