Behind the Scenes: Scott Brooks does Jumping Jacks at Halftime

Our own Sarah Rogers had media access to the Thunder-Rockets game, and she was kind enough to shoot some video of what's going on behind the scenes. You can find it all in the YouTube playlist below, along with audio of Scott Brooks' media interview and a transcription of some of Brooks' and KD's post-game comments. -Z

Media: How did you feel about Russell's response (to Beverley's actions)?

Scott Brooks: One thing. You guys know that I love Russell. And this is why I really love him. He doesn't like the 58 point guards that he plays against. He's not out there to make friends. He's not out there to be anybody's buddy. He competes with everything he has in his body. He's about playing the right way. A game that we, as a coaching staff, as fans, as an organization, can be proud of. That's what he does every single night. I will never, ever think anything else. He plays the way it's supposed to be played.

Media: Is this the most physical game you've played this year?

Scott Brooks: No, not at all. We've played a lot of physical games. When we play our best basketball, the teams come away that they played a basketball game. And you can talk to them. They played a good team, a physical team, and a team that believes in possession by possession. We weren't happy the last two games. We lost to two teams on their floor. And the way we lost the games- that's not the way we wanna play. I thought we did a better job of coming out tonight and playing a good 48 minutes of tough basketball.

Media: How happy were you with Steven Adams performance?

Scott Brooks: I was happy. I was doing jumping jacks at halftime. I was really happy. .... I can still do 'em, too.

----

Media: How do you keep down Howard, but also get to the shooters?

KD: You know Dwight wants to get in the post. He's gonna look to score every time. So we just try to stay at home and make him shoot it over the bigs. Steven did a great job. Serge, Nick, and Hash really did a great job of just making it tougher. He's a really great player, and you've gotta give it to him. But those guys were physical and frustrated him. We went at him on the other end as well, trying to get him some fouls. So I think it was a collective effort.

Media: What's the one thing that you want to take from the defensive end into the next game?

KD: We stayed in front of our man for the most part. We helped each other out a lot. Better than we've been doing before. And man, they shoot tough shots. They got in the paint a little bit, but not as much as they usually do. But I think we covered every aspect of our defense, which is getting out to the shooters, closing out the paint, making second or third efforts on contested shots.

Media: Kevin, you've said before that you don't necessarily like every team that you guys play. Is this a team that you'd throw in that category?

KD: I just love competing. We love competing. We take it personal, but it's not like, "I hate this guy", or, "I hate this team". We just go out there and just compete, play to win. Whoever's on the floor, whoever we're playing against, that's how we feel.

Media: What did you think about your team's energy and effort?

KD: It was good from the beginning, man. One you lock in on what you're supposed to do, we're a pretty good team on the defensive end. So, you know, everybody did a great job

Media: How did you feed off of that emotion, energy, and intensity in the first quarter?

KD: I think that we were more sort of pumped up because we'd lost two in a row. That's a really good team over there, but we were just focused and trying to win a basketball game, that's all.