It was a blessing in disguise," Brown told ESPN Monday on the eve of New York's title game showdown against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. "I was open and honest. He hadn't played a lot in the preseason because he got hurt early on, so I didn't have a great feel for how to use him, when to use him, what his game was completely like.
It's difficult to ring any type of alarm for a team that became only the third in history to open the regular season 23-1. The Thunder's league-best 104.1 defensive rating is more than six points per 100 possessions better than the Rockets' (110.7) in the second slot. That gap is equivalent to the canyon between second and 23rd. So there's nothing to complain about on the defensive end.
