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Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault saw a productive four-game road trip end with a 119-116 loss against the Houston Rockets Sunday night. Despite losing the nail-biting finish, Daigneault believes his Thunder are a better team than they were over a week ago. He noted his team’s stifling defense and relentless offensive approach as significant factors.
After the game, Daigneault talked about his team stepping up to the challenge during the Thunder’s west-coast road trip, including Cason Wallace, who started instead of Isaiah Joe in Oklahoma City’s last two games.
“This whole trip, he was really high-level, from defense to physicality plays,” Daigneault said. “His shooting, this season, has not been great yet. Our whole team on this trip [was] on kind of a rough shooting trip. We showed great resilience to continue to shoot the good ones. He made a huge shot tonight that if we won the game, that would have been one of the shots of the night.”
Wallace finished with 14 points, including two threes in the fourth quarter. His 26-foot three tied Sunday’s game at 113 with 1:04 left in the final frame. Despite an up-and-down shooting streak throughout the four-game trip, Wallace didn’t let it discourage him from taking a deep three while the Thunder trailed down the stretch.
The confidence reminded Daigneault of what he saw from rookie Ajay Mitchell and Joe in the Thunder’s 105-101 win against the Golden State Warriors and their 101-93 win against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Mitchell, the other night, was 1-for-8 against Golden State. He hit that one in the corner,” Daigneault said. “Isaiah Joe was 0-for-6; he hit the one late in the game. Dort has been in a little bit of a slump, dealing with his finger. Then, he hit four of them the other night. I think the mental toughness of the team was on display. Cason is in that category.”
Mark Daigneault’s honest admission on Thunder’s loss vs. Rockets
Despite missing Alex Caruso throughout the Thunder’s road trip, Mark Daigneault’s team prevailed to a 3-1 finish and is a better team than it was before leaving Oklahoma City.
For Daigneault, he’s seeing his team make tremendous strides.
“Glad we could learn from playing in a game like that. So, we got to learn from it, grow through it,” Daigneault said. “But, I think, the trip in totality, we’re a better team right now than we were eight days ago when we took off for this trip.”
The Thunder returns home to host the Jazz in an NBA Cup matchup at the Paycom Center.
