Thunder’s Hartenstein stresses importance of taking it one game at a time in quest to defend NBA crown
MANILA, Philippines — With playoff teams looking to win the NBA championship, the Oklahoma City Thunder are making sure they are not looking too far ahead in their bid to defend their title.
Oklahoma City is heading to the NBA playoffs holding home court advantage throughout the postseason.
And with a bulk of the basketball world considering the Thunder as the title favorites once again, big man Isaiah Hartenstein stressed that the team is not skipping steps toward their journey back to glory.
“I think throughout the whole season you've always had a target on your back. I think we just do a great job of just approaching it the same way. We don't look too far forward. We don't look too much into the media. We don't look too much into stuff. We just kind of focus on ourselves and just go game for game,” he told reporters at a press conference early Friday morning (Manila time).
“I think that's where you take pressure out of it. I think we have a lot of confidence in ourselves, but we also know we have to earn it. We have to go game by game and you can't skip steps at all. And so we're confident, but we also know we just can't skip any steps,” he added.
Led by reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder finished the regular season with a league-best 64-18 win-loss record.
Hartenstein added that the team “just know what it takes” to win the title anew.
“Like I said before, we don't want to skip steps. We don't want to look too far ahead. We know what it takes to win it and that's kind of the same approach we want to take this year. Again, I think last year we did a great job of just being focused, being focused on the present moment, being focused on the process. I think now we just got to know what awaits us a little bit,” he said.
“But then, every playoff [series] is different. You're going through different adversities, you're going through different challenges through each playoff series and we just have a deep team, a team that is ready to sacrifice whatever the team needs to win.”
The Thunder will be taking on either Phoenix or Golden State in the first round of the playoffs. The Suns and the Warriors will battle it out for the eighth seed on Saturday (Manila time).
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