Practice Report: Sitting, waiting, watching
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NICK COLLISON
On the recent practices: “It’s been good. We haven’t had much time to practice this year. We’ve had two really good practices. The schedule, it’s really unique to all of a sudden to have six or seven days off. But we’re making the most of it.”
On Perk having time to rest: “The good thing is giving [Perk] a chance to rest and hopefully heal. No one really knows what’s going to happen with him, but the more days the better.”
On if Perk can’t play: “We’re going to have to have other guys step up if he can’t go. We’ve got a lot of talent here. We have faith in guys. A lot of guys, just because they’re not getting a chance to play doesn’t mean they can’t play. I think Royal proved that when he sat for almost a year and a half and came in and played well. We’ve got guys that can play and just need opportunities. That’s why we practice and everybody gets the same amount of reps.”
SERGE IBAKA
On what he’s working on with these days off: “Being in the gym I try to make my body be ready. Then I work hard on my jumpshot and my post game. I’m not working to get a post game in a game, but just make myself be ready. Some game you don’t know. Like maybe Russ, James or KD in trouble and I need to be ready to step up. That’s why every day I work on my game to be ready. We never know.”
On how if Perk’s injury might affect him: “Perk is a great big guy to play with him. He help me a lot and I learn a lot off of him and I enjoy playing with him. If like you said, it can be hard, but that’s basketball. We need to try to do something to make our team don’t feel like, ‘OK, Perk is not here, we can do nothing.’ Of course, we have Naz, we have Nick, KD, Cole, and they can try to do the best they can for the team.”
On who he’d rather play: “We don’t care. We just be ready to get any team and play against. We don’t care. We don’t just want to play against one team. We don’t care. Any team.”
SCOTT BROOKS
On Perk: “He’s here getting treatment, working with our staff. Really no update other than he’s here getting treatments and see how he feels tomorrow and the next day after that.”
On Metta World Peace playing in OKC: “I think our atmosphere is the best in the league no matter who we play. I just think we have great fans. Our building is always good no matter what night of the week, no matter who we play. Playing in the second round, obviously there’s going to be a little more excitement playing against the Lakers. Other than that, we’re just focusing on who we play next.”
On if the Thunder’s getting too much time off: “It’s always good to get some time off because you can rest. Everybody has some aches and pains when you go through a season, any season, it’s always a physical grind on your body and mentality. I think our guys needed it. We gave them a couple days off and the last two days were really good. You’ve got to stay sharp. And that’s why you have to work on things that you will do in games. That’s why we scrimmage and our guys really compete against each other. Any time we put a scoreboard into a game it raises up the competition level.”
Audio via Randy Renner of NBA.com.
