The first Oklahoma City Thunder game with Mark Daigneault at the helm was very nearly a decisive victory. Then, the Charlotte Hornets stormed back to overcome a 13-point deficit with two minutes remaining. Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit the game-winner to give the Thunder a 109-107 win.
There were times in which the Thunder looked frantic in those closing minutes — they committed several turnovers, fouled too much and struggled against full-court press.
Daigneault, to his credit, didn’t seem any different to his players when he was drawing up the final play compared to his usual composure.
“The way that coach operates, I see that in practice. I seen it last year, and all the guys see it in practice every day,” forward Darius Bazley said. “Nothing tonight surprised me.”
The Thunder made excellent halftime adjustments and broke out in the third quarter, a time in which they limited the Hornets to 16 points While Daigneault had a long leash with his rookies — in part out of necessity on a bench without much depth — he pulled Aleksej Pokusevski with about 9:30 to go in the fourth quarter after the 19-year-old missed three straight 3s, ending his nine with six missed shots, all of which were behind the arc.
The Hornets came blazing back over the final two minutes. With about 10 seconds left, Daigneault called a timeout following a Charlotte 3-pointer that evened the score at 107.
“He was very calm even when they tied it up,” center Mike Muscala said.
The final play was simple: Let Gilgeous-Alexander bring the ball upcourt, space the floor to get out of his way, and let him go to work against Charlotte’s Cody Martin.
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“Super composed, kept our heads high, kept us confident, and he was our leader down the stretch even though things weren’t going the right way,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was cool, calm and collected.”
In the locker room after the game, the team celebrated around him and showered the coach with water for the successful debut.
“We know that he has the best interest for us and we have best for him, and we know that he’s going to go down fighting, swinging just like we are,” said guard George Hill, who had 21 points in 24 minutes.
They might’ve had more excitement than the head coach, who, when asked for a grade of his performance in the postgame press conference, gave himself a middling rating and turned the attention back to his players.
“I don’t know, a C-plus,” Daigneault said with a little laugh. “But I’m happy I have these guys, they played great.”
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