Q. Your fingerprints were are all over the win in Game 5, especially on defense. How much would you say you improved defensively since you came to the league, switching, shot blocking and how do you prepare for moments like that?
CHET HOLMGREN: Just by always having a real attention to improvement there. Really watching where I can do better, having a mindset that I need to get better in those areas. Working with the coaching staff to see how it all kind of ties into what we're trying to accomplish as a team.
I think there were a lot of really good moments on that end in Game 5. I got to continue to be better going forward.
Q. You are a really young player playing at the biggest level. How do you handle all the opinions that people say about you on social media or TV shows? Do you see that? Has someone given you any advice on how to handle that?
CHET HOLMGREN: I'd say the biggest thing I learned to do is not try to handle any of it. I just try to handle my job, which is playing basketball. The reason we're able to play in front of so many cameras and get paid to do what we do is because people have opinions, people talk about it. It's all part of the business of basketball.
My part in that business is to play basketball. I just focus on that, playing basketball, trying to be better every night. I let those people do their jobs.
Q. Even though you guys came into this season with a realistic chance to win a championship, Sam [Presti] didn’t really use that phrasing and has just stressed taking the steps, stacking days and improving. How important has it been to just stay in the present and keep building, regardless of the outcome?
CHET HOLMGREN: I mean, if you sit and talk about doing something for a long time, and you don't actually do everything every single day that it takes to work towards that, you're never going to get there.
There really is no focusing on the end goal while you're in it. You know what the end goal is, but at the end of the day you got to focus on what you have to do every single day to get better every day, to put yourself in a position to try and reach that.
Q. What do you say to the critics who think that the Thunder maybe hasn’t failed enough to this point or faced enough adversity?
CHET HOLMGREN: I don't know. I can't speak for everybody on the team. I feel like I've seen my fair share of adversity. I'm going to continue to see that. I have to continue to work hard through it all.
As a team, no matter what we see, we kind of come together over it good or bad. We're going to continue to do that no matter what happens.
But other than that, I don't know how to respond.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports