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As the Oklahoma City Thunder await their Western Conference semifinal opponent, either the Denver Nuggets or the Los Angeles Clippers, head coach Mark Daigneault discussed preparing his players for either team this week. After the Thunder swept the Memphis Grizzlies 4-0 in the opening round, Daigneault says the Thunder have focused on improving as a collective unit instead of focusing on one team.
Daigneault says he doesn’t want him or his team to make any assumptions about their second-round opponent.
“We’re still working on ourselves. We don’t want to make any assumptions. We don’t want to put a lot of time into one team and then, next thing you know, the other team wins,” Daigneault said. “So, there’s enough we can work on, and there’s enough fundamentals that are gonna matter no matter what, that we can work on them. We’re going to be at no disadvantage from a preparation standpoint relative to our opponent.
“They’re still playing in a series right now, whoever they are. And we’ve gotten used to these quick preparation turnarounds. It’s actually probably a good thing for us and the team that it forces us to prioritize and doesn’t let us get in the weeds on a bunch of different things,” Daigneault concluded.
Still, as Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault pointed out, a team learns about itself after a best-of-7 series opener by constantly readjusting and making moves on the fly.
“The last part is after Game 1, your gameplan presents itself at that point, and there’s things that you couldn’t have predicted that become priorities, and then, the game starts to unfold,” Daigneault added. “We’ve found a comfort with the way that we’ve prepared, and part of that is not getting too deep too early, and just focusing on the things that are going to matter for us.”
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on change in approach to Thunder series
Despite a poor shooting percentage at the beginning of his first-round series against the Grizzlies, Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander never changed his offensive approach. It led to a dominating Game 4 performance, which Gilgeous-Alexander says stood out most from his series against the Grizzlies.
“In the past, I for sure would have turned down the aggressiveness a little bit,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I made a jump as far as that this year, and that’s something I’m definitely proud of. I try not to focus on the result and just focus on my mental development. I think I’ve taken a step forward in that, and I had a night like tonight because of it.”
With a 3-2 lead, the Nuggets can advance to face the Thunder in Game 6 on Thursday.
