OKC Thunder: Q&A with Nick Collison

“I'm not sure why. We've put a lot of focus on getting to the right spots and having good spacing. I think we've been better at that. That definitely helps us because we're not playing in a crowd as much, but I don't know why all the sudden we're doing that better. That's really not answering your question. Maybe it's a higher sense of urgency knowing each possession is so important. I can't really put my finger on it, either. In all these one-possession games, if we had our season average of turnovers (16.3), we'd probably lose.”

I'm sure you've understood what Brooks has preached all year long in terms of the importance of defense, but do you think it finally has clicked in with the younger players?

“We're getting really good experience in these playoffs. I think we're trusting what we've been practicing and what coaches have been preaching. I think before maybe we had a tendency when things got tough to decide that we needed to try to make individual plays and try to take care of it ourselves, which doesn't really work out very well. We're trusting the team more and the game plan and it's working out well for us.”

Does what you're saying fit with the night-and-day difference in your team's first-half defense compared to its second-half defense in the Game 4 comeback victory against the Los Angeles Lakers?