The Oklahoma City Thunder weren't able to pull out a victory against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, but they're content with how they played given the circumstances with their crazy travel arrangements due to the winter storm sweeping across the country.
In response to the unusual situation the Thunder had to experience, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — who returned from an injury on Wednesday — spoke about Oklahoma City's efforts against the Memphis Grizzlies:
SGA on his telling his teammates “no excuses” before the game:
“Obviously the circumstances were a little bit different tonight. But it’s our job. And no matter what, we have to play to our standards.”
Shai says he was happy with the effort despite OKC’s loss.
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) February 18, 2021
Due to the snowstorms, Oklahoma City's flight to Memphis was delayed. As a result, the Thunder's team plane landed not even two hours before the game. At the same time, they were without two of their key veteran contributors in Al Horford and George Hill.
Despite these obstacles, OKC played a hard-fought game versus Memphis that resulted in a 122-113 defeat. Mark Daigneault, the head coach of the Thunder, expressed how the players on his roster are immune to making excuses:
Mark Daigneault on the Thunder's plane not arriving until an hour and a half before the game:
"I give our guys a lot of credit. In a time when you can make a lot of excuses, if you feed these guys an excuse, they'll spit it right out."
— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) February 18, 2021
Coming into the season, the Thunder weren't expected to be a team that would win many games due to their offseason moves that made it evident they were building for the future. Oklahoma City offloaded Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Steven Adams in trades in order to land more draft capital.
With that being said, the Thunder have an 11-17 record, which is better than most people expected them to have at this point in the season. They have been competitive in a number of other games they wound up losing, including two recent ones against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Even though Oklahoma City had to deal with quite a few issues on Wednesday night, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Mark Daigneault are pleased with how the team has dealt with adversity this season.
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