Mark Daigneault lays out the hard truth about OKC in the loss to the Raptors

ByNBAUSA


OKLAHOMA CITY — After Mark Daigneault and Oklahoma City The Thunder lost by three to the Indiana Pacersthey followed that up with a two-point loss (103-101) to Toronto Raptors in the Paicom Center. Daigneault watched as a two-point Thunder lead turned into a four-point deficit in 33 seconds when Immanuel Quickley connected on back-to-back 3-pointers with 1:16 left in the final frame.

The Thunder battled back to within two points (101-99) before Scotty Barnes beat Chet Holmgren on a pull-up jumper with 28.6 seconds left to give the Raptors their fourth straight win. After the loss, Daigneault reflected on Toronto late execution.

“Obviously they made some shots and some plays. We didn’t. When you get to that point of the game, it’s all about time management, clock management. I thought we did it decently and gave ourselves a chance,” Daigneault said. “But when you get into a game that close, it’s going to come down to mistakes and misses. And the trick is: Can you play a ground game for 48 where you have more control of it up until that point?”

“But we found ourselves in that situation the last couple of nights. We did a decent job of trying to give ourselves a chance to win. We didn’t come up with it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it.”

Mark Daigneault keeps it 100 on late-game execution

Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic and Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigno watch their teams play during the second half at the Paycom Center
Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Thunder head coach Marc Daigneault’s comments after the home loss sounded similar to his thoughts on Friday’s loss to the Pacers. Shai Giljus-Alexander’s 47 points were not enough against the Pacers, nor his 11 of 24 points in the third quarter, as the Raptors spent the night doubling up on the reigning MVP, who had nine points in the first half and finished with two in the final frame.

Playing the full 48 minutes has been a problem for the Thunder in two straight losses, as Daigneault noted after a game in which his team failed to make game-winning plays down a stretch of tight play.

“They made enough plays. In mitigation, the lesson is: When you’re in a deficit like that, it makes you a deficit,” Daigneault said. “It really limits your margin for error the rest of the game. That doesn’t mean you can’t come back and win. It’s a 48-minute game. It was obviously a winnable game for us tonight.”

“But when you go down that much in the first half, it takes a lot of effort to come back and then it comes down to a play here or there, and obviously they were more than two games better than us tonight.”

The Thunder will close out their three-game homestand on Tuesday against the Pelicans.





2026-01-26 04:20:00

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