OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder have every week off earlier than taking part in once more within the NBA Finals.
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How the Thunder, who defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 4-1 within the Western Convention finals, deal with that stretch might set the tone for the championship sequence towards both the Indiana Pacers or New York Knicks that begins June 5 in Oklahoma Metropolis.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault expects his younger gamers to deal with the state of affairs identical to they’ve dealt with all the pieces else that’s been thrown at them this season.
“They’re highly professional, consistently professional,” he stated. “They’re high-character people. They come from high-character circles. They’re unbelievably competitive. They put the work in behind it consistently through the ups and downs. And most of all, they are team first.”
The Thunder have had lengthy breaks between video games through the playoffs the previous two years, with combined outcomes.
They swept the New Orleans Pelicans in final yr’s first spherical, then beat Dallas 117-95 at house in Sport 1 of the convention semifinals after ready eight days between video games. The Thunder ultimately misplaced that sequence 4-2.
After this yr’s sequence towards Memphis, the Thunder have been in the same state of affairs. Denver’s first-round sequence towards the Los Angeles Clippers went seven video games, so Daigneault gave the gamers some additional relaxation since there have been 9 days between video games. The main target for the workforce was much less on an opponent at first and extra on fine-tuning his workforce’s points.
“I mean, really just reinforcement of fundamentals,” he stated heading into the Denver sequence. “The game defensively is going to come down to transition D , it’s going to come down to individual D, help D, coverage, communication, closeouts, rebounding. So we’re looking at the series through that lens. And then offensively, all the fundamentals on that end of the floor that transcend each coverage and pull it up.”
The Thunder misplaced to Denver 121-119 at house in Sport 1 of the convention semifinals, however got here again and received Sport 2 131-80 and ultimately received the sequence 4-3.
Daigneault’s workforce learns properly on the fly, so no expertise is wasted for the squad that posted a league-best 68-14 file within the common season.
“This team, as they’ve always done, they just internalize the experience,” he said. “They strip the emotion, they learn the lesson and then they compete presently in the next moment. And that’s why we improved at the rate that we have.”
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