Right coach, the right team, respond in Game 5
Mark Daigneault does not get enough credit.
He won NBA coach of the year two seasons ago, but you know what the national talking heads never say?
They never say, “Don’t forget, the Thunder are coached by Mark Daigneault.”
Of course to say it, they’d have to remember who coaches the Oklahoma City Thunder and, good chance, they don’t.
They know Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and they know general manager Sam Presti, who they may agree to be the league’s best player and general manager. But they forget about the guy directing the Thunder on the floor.
Daigneault.
They ought to watch his postgame pressers.
Maybe the one after Oklahoma City’s 127-114 Tuesday night Western Conference finals Game 5 triumph over San Antonio, bringing the Thunder one win from a return to the NBA Finals.
Daigneault was asked if, maybe, as soon as Game 4 ended, he saw something from his players, some indication they’d respond.
Nope, he said. He’s not a psychologist.
He does, though, trust his team.
He was sort of asked about putting Jared McCain in the starting lineup, if he liked his energy, and something else because the question kept changing, perhaps because McCain wasn’t good from the start, but remained tremendous coming off the bench, scoring 18 of his 20 points in the second half.
“I’m not, like, crazy about who the starters are,” Daigneault said. “It’s just the first substitution.”
How perfect is that? Before the tip there were no Thunder players on the court. For the tip, there were five. The first substitution. Brilliant.
To another question seeking narrative to OKC being so bad two nights earlier to being in control for most of the last three quarters of the game:
“I thought we were first to the fight tonight on both ends,” Daigneault said. “And we weren’t the other night.”
Then he explained why that should shock nobody.
“We’ve been doing this all year in terms of problem solving as a team,” he said, “not making excuses, seeing adversity as a challenge.”
Doing this, he demonstrates how good a coach he is in two ways.
One, he always has the right answer.
You know who didn’t have the right answer?
Billy Donovan, whose mouth was always moving but who said very little accurate or smart, I presume, because he figured saying something accurate and smart might piss off Russell Westbrook.
I wasn’t there for Scott Brooks or P.J. Carlesimo’s press conferences and never made a point to track them down and watch later. I don’t know if they said accurate and smart things or not.
What I know is Daigneault dodges no questions because he doesn’t need to. He knows his team and himself so well, he can offer context previously unconsidered. And if the question’s not particularly good, he’s bound to offer the right answer to the better question without making the asker look dumb.
When other coaches dodge, you understand why, because there appears to be no good way to say it and they don’t want to start a fire. But Daigneault always knows the right way to say it so he never has to worry about starting a fire.
So imagine how good he must be with his players, how good he must be answering their questions, how much insight they must realize he really has.
In this so-named players era, it’s been fair to ask if coaches coach at all, or if superstars are moonlighting as GMs. You don’t have to wonder about the Thunder.
Two, not only does Daigneault have the answers, consider the substance of them, like the one about relishing adversity and problem-solving as a team.
We see it happen all the time with this team.
What we don’t see is drama, ego or selfishness. And any coach who has the former and not the latter must be a hell of a coach, even if he gets some help from his superstar.
That’s a lot about Daigneault, but the Thunder’s Game 5 victory was rooted in what’s been developed under his guidance.
Because Victor Wembanyama was so incredible in Game 1 and because everybody decided he was again in Game 4, as though he was responsible for the Thunder’s clunker himself, the narrative of the whole series turned right back into San Antonio’s inevitability. Like the series was done, it just hadn’t ended yet.
As though the Thunder had quit being the Thunder.
But there they were, in a big, big, big game, with their star not very good from the start — Gilgeous-Alexander committed three turnovers and hit 1 of 5 shots in the first quarter — but never wilting, never not bringing it and eventually gaining control.
“I might have had the worst start to a basketball game in my career,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But the group held it down.”
They did.
Kenrich Williams hit a huge 3-pointer, Alex Caruso delivered 14 points and four assists in 12 1/2 first-half minutes, Chet Holmgren started fast, scoring 12 of his 16 points before the half.
Then came SGA, getting to the free-throw line to counter inaccurate shooting, finishing with 32 points and nine assists, hitting 16 of 17 freebies.
Were the Thunder supposed to not show up?
It’s true, Wembanyama’s propensity to live outside the paint was a mystery and his topping out at 20 points, six rebounds and three blocks was a surprise and, honestly, I don’t know how it happened.
What I know is Cason Wallace and Isaiah Hartenstein had much to do with it, Wallace finishing plus 29 over his 31 minutes and Hartenstein finishing plus 24 over his 30 1/2.
It’s not shocking.
The Thunder did what they do, which tends to happen because they can do it so many different ways.
“We, obviously, played a lot better,” Daigneault said.
As he, no doubt, expected.
He’s been coaching them the whole time.