Houston Rockets forward Alperen Sengun drew praise from Amen Thompson after Sunday's 115-96 win over the Los Angeles Lakers for delivering an inspiring speech earlier in the day.
Sengun gathered his teammates after morning shootaround and told them not to quit despite being down 3-0 in the first-round series.
"I didn't give up on this series and I just wanted to let everybody know," Sengun said postgame, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.
"I'm glad it worked and everybody came out to play today. Hopefully everybody's mindset has changed going into a fifth game."
Sengun delivered 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting in Game 4, while Thompson led Houston with 23 points.
Thompson said Sengun's speech helped convince the Rockets they could win despite their collapse in Game 3 and the absence of leading scorer Kevin Durant, who's sidelined with an ankle injury.
"He was just letting us know he didn't want to go home," Thompson said. "I was proud of him just taking that leadership role and just pulling us all back in there and being like, 'This is not how we end it. If we go out, we're going to go out and fight, but we're not thinking about going out.'"
Sengun, who hails from Turkey and used an interpreter to communicate earlier in his career, was happy his teammates understood his speech and found it motivational.
"After the talk today, Amen was telling me that it really motivated (him). And then I was like, 'My English was good?' (I) messed up one point. He said, 'I don't care. I still understand you.' So I was happy they understood me," Sengun said.
The Rockets and Lakers play Game 5 in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
