Marc Daigneault’s silver lining in a starless Spurs game

Basketball prowess tells you that a little game prowess may have turned out to be a big reason Oklahoma City Thunder sat almost every one of their rotation guys against San Antonio Spurs. After a great short show that had them four points behind their rivals in the fourth quarter the OKC coach Mark Daigneault perhaps brought as close as possible to uncovering the hidden truth.

“There’s definitely things we can take away from this game, both in terms of us getting better and learning from that opponent,” the 2024-25 NBA champion told ClutchPoints.

Already having played with the Spurs four times this season — the the first three famously go in the direction of San Antonio — Oklahoma City’s decision to put more than half of its roster on the injured list for the meeting in San Antonio seemed more strategic than necessary, especially considering the two could very well meet in the playoffs.

“There were some positives tonight, but we’re certainly not satisfied,” Daigneault said after the 116-106 loss.

While the Thunder’s sixth-year head coach may very well have said the same things after a game involving his championship core, he could have declared it after his squad was objectively outnumbered.

“We came here to win, you just saw the effort the guys put in. There are no moral victories, but there are things we can take from every game,” continued the 2024 NBA Coach of the Year.

With several two-way contract players called up to potentially fill in as reserves, the Thunder were in the hunt until the final minute.

“I think the best outcome would have been a win. It was a game to win,” Daigneault concluded.

Or, in this case, win-win.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson talks about the win against the Thunder

Doc Spurs coach Mitch Johnson he didn’t praise his team after the second consecutive victory, he didn’t criticize the group either.

“It’s fair that you usually have expectations from teams because you get the rhythm of who they have and obviously there’s availability and sometimes lineup changes and whatnot,” admitted the silver and black’s first-year coach. “But when you play a team as much as we have, we’ve played this team five times now in less than two months, you get used to seeing patterns whether it’s personnel, play, style of play. And when you have such a stark contrast to what you’re used to, it’s different. I guess it could be a challenge.”

Although they fared well against the Thunder regulars, as well as fellow Western Conference contenders the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets, San Antonio had sometimes he struggled against teams that weren’t that good.

“Our challenge is to consistently play the same on every golf course, no matter where we play,” Johnson added.

“We did what we had to do to win. There are a lot of things that could have been better, and it’s good to see us finish the job,” the 39-year-old coach continued after his team’s 34th win of the year. “But I think we’ll continue to try to hold ourselves to our standards.”

That’s the standard that has now brought down the defending champions, a team that once again boasts the league’s best record, four times in just over a month and a half.