The Oklahoma City Thunder held practice on Tuesday. It’s the first of several practices this week ahead of Round 1 of the 2025 NBA playoffs.
Like last year, the first seed must wait until Friday night of the play-in tournament to figure out their first-round matchup. It’ll either be the Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings or Dallas Mavericks.
Despite that, the Thunder spend the week off preparing for the playoffs. Mark Daigneault, Isaiah Hartenstein and LU Dort talked to the local media on Tuesday. Daigneault discussed preparation, Hartenstein revealed what Sam Presti told them in a meeting and Dort broke down his thoughts on the DPOY award.
Here’s a recap of Tuesday’s Apr. 15 Thunder practice:
Thunder playoff practice today with Sam Presti in attendance pic.twitter.com/R9hpESSZn0
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein on their week off: “It was good. The guys the last 2 games did an amazing job. I think you saw how deep our team is from that standpoint… Being able to get our bodies right yesterday and really go after it today.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein: “In the playoffs, there are so many highs and lows. How can we reset is the biggest thing. I think those are the best teams. It doesn’t matter what happens in the game. They were able to reset and focus on the next opportunity. That’s been the main thing.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein said they’ll focus on blocking out the media and outside noise during the playoffs. Or “The Machine” as he called it: “You lose one game, it’s the end of the world. You win one game, you’re the greatest of all time.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein on SGA’s leadership style and the trusts he has in his teammates to make the right plays in the playoffs: pic.twitter.com/9u37mXbkgD
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein said Sam Presti met with the team to talk about the playoffs: “He didn’t waste time. Got to the point. I think it brought us back in together knowing what our goals were, knowing what we’ve been through the season, knowing how together we are.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Mark Daigneault: “You get into a series with another team. Both teams establish a baseline and you have to adjust off that. The series can take you in a lot of different directions and I always find it to be wild you end up doing something in a playoff series you never done in a…
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Mark Daigneault: “The postseason is about doing everything you can to win the next game in front of you. For us right now, that’s Game 1 on Sunday. When Game 1 is over, that’s Series will not be over and it’ll be Game 2.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Mark Daigneault on their playoff rotation: “We have to understand depth is a strength for us. We’re not going to tie a hand behind our back by not leaning into that… We gotta listen to what the series is telling us.” pic.twitter.com/S9MDIMYoAb
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Mark Daigneault on this week: “It’s a unique situation to have this much time between games and not know your opponent. We’ll both have the same amount of time to prepare. We’ll both have Saturday and then we play Sunday. You’re in no disadvantage. We definitely learned from last…
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Lu Dort on their reg season accomplishments: “We always gotta be proud of the work we’ve done. It was a great regular season for us and we all know that. We got to have that confidence that we had out there when we did good. Now it’s minds behind us and a new season starting.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Lu Dort on perimeter defenders historically struggling to win DPOY: pic.twitter.com/G4iGC2LwiX
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
Lu Dort on people who say they’re too young to have playoff success: “I’m more into the team and trusting the work honestly. We worked hard tog et to that point. People can say anything. It is what it is. We there for a reason and we got to this spot for a reason.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) April 15, 2025
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Thunder practice: What Daigneault, Isaiah Hartenstein, Lu Dort said