Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on May 17 that the Los Angeles Lakers improved his team during their second-round playoff series, which ended in a sweep by the Thunder. The Lakers played without Luka Doncic and were eliminated in four games.
Daigneault praised the Lakers for their resilience despite missing key players. He said, “The Lakers, congratulate them on a great season. And obviously they played excellent tonight. But it’s been an impressive run they’ve had. With [Luka] Dončić out, with [Austin] Reaves out for part of that Houston series, they’ve been unbelievably resourceful.”
He also acknowledged the work of Los Angeles head coach JJ Redick and his staff: “I have high respect for JJ Redick and their staff. And every series seems to teach your team lessons, and they throw a lot of pitches at us. I think we’re a better team at the end of the series than we were at the beginning, and that’s a credit to them. Just a tip of the hat to them. Deep respect.”
Daigneault explained how facing different defensive strategies from Los Angeles helped Oklahoma City improve its own play during the series: “Yeah, I think the pitches of a lot of mixing defenses. That’s about as aggressively as we’ve been double-teamed out on the floor in a while,” he said.
He continued, “Certainly, in a playoff series. It was similar to Denver playing that much zone in a playoff series a year ago. And it really had us having to sharpen our attacks, but I thought we did a great job of that… So, I think we’re a lot better in that area than we were coming into the series.”
Looking ahead, Oklahoma City will face Victor Wembanyama and San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals while Los Angeles enters an offseason focused on building around Doncic following his MVP-caliber season.
