What Mark Daigneault liked, didn’t like in Thunder’s 1st game vs. Warriors
The Oklahoma City Thunder had a day off between two games against the Golden State Warriors, giving them a break to reflect on the loss and watch some film before getting back into the action.
In the matchup on Thursday, Oklahoma City lost 118-97. The Thunder kept the score close for about two and a half quarters, but 17 points from Golden State guard Steph Curry in the third quarter helped the Warriors take the lead and eventually seal the game.
Guard Ty Jerome led the Thunder with 23 points while Darius Bazley scored 22.
After the game, Daigneault spoke about things he liked and an area that needs to be rectified when the teams get their rematch on Saturday.
What Daigneault liked
"Some of our game plan stuff was really good," Daigneault said. "They went deep into some possessions and made some plays at the end of the clock that you've gotta tip your hat to." It's nearly impossible to game plan for Steph Curry, especially when Draymond Green is passing him the ball. Green has assisted more baskets to Curry this season than any other duo in the league. The Thunder cut the deficit to six points with less than six minutes to play in the third quarter, but Curry scored five points in a row to drive it back to double-digits. "I thought game plan-wise, we did a pretty good job on them. Much better than we did the first time," Daigneault said, referring to the 147-109 Thunder loss on April 14. "Offensively, I thought we had really good poise tonight. I thought Theo and Ty specifically -- against their pressure the first game, they got the best of us, and I thought tonight they handled that with great poise. "We generated good shots, didn't turn it over. Got to the line more than they did. We did a lot of good things."
Area of improvement
Daigneault's main concern was in transition, something that has been an issue throughout the season. "The thing that really hurt us was transition. They had some runouts on us, where it was too easy," the coach said. Golden State is excellent in transition, ranking in the top 10 in the league for possessions, points, field goal percentage and effective field goal percentage. They are tied for 11th for points per possession in transition. Then, Steph Curry went off, contributing to the Warriors' 48.8 shooting percentage from the field and 40.4% from deep. "We just gotta clean up some stuff defensively, get back in transition, and keep generating good looks, and keep letting them fly with confidence," Daigneault said. Tipoff on Saturday is scheduled for 9 p.m. Central Time.
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