OKLAHOMA CITY — Scott Brooks knows what he’s up against in trying to keep his young, eager Oklahoma City Thunder team off the basketball court for a whole day.
Even if that day started with the final stretch of a triple-overtime playoff thriller in Memphis, Tenn., a round of postgame interviews and a flight that didn’t get back to Oklahoma City until about 3:30 a.m.
“They will come in and do too much, but that’s fine. They always do,” Brooks said Tuesday. “That’s what makes them players and the team that we are. Guys believe in coming in and working. Either they lift weights, get some shots up or work on their bodies on some of the aches and pains that you go through and everybody has.”
Less than 14 hours after their marathon 133-123 victory in Game 4 at Memphis, Serge Ibaka and Nate Robinson were out shooting and Kevin Durant and other teammates were in the building while Brooks met with reporters. Two hours later, there were still sneakers squeaking in a closed gym on what was supposed to be mostly an off day for both teams.
Neither was holding a formal practice. The Grizzlies traveled in the afternoon, gathering at the airport and watching film on the plane before tonight’s Game 5 in Oklahoma City.
“It’s not a lot of rest but it’s not a lot for each team,” Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said. “I’m sure they’ll have a little more bounce in their step being at home and having won this game versus us having lost it. But we’ll be there.”
Memphis guard O.J. Mayo said it would “be a tough challenge, but if I pick any group to go on the road with an obstacle and a challenge like that, this is the group I’d like to go in there with.”
