Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault walked into his postgame podium after a tight win over the Los Angeles Lakers and immediately handed the credit to his perimeter defenders. The Thunder, fresh off building one of the toughest team identities in the NBA, executed a defensive plan against Luka Doncic that Daigneault said was set by Lu Dort from the opening tip.
"Yeah, obviously well," Daigneault said when asked about Dort's performance. "I thought Lou was really on it tonight. I thought Hart was really on it tonight. Thought Kasem when he came in the game elevated our pressure."
The Thunder's defensive containment of Doncic - coming off the Lakers star's 600-point March and three straight 40-point games - was the throughline of the night. Daigneault, who has spent the season turning Dort into Oklahoma City's primary point-of-attack stopper, was careful not to dress the assignment up as solved.
"I mean, we controlled what we could with him. I thought we were tight in our coverages. We didn't give them as a team anything easy. And I thought Lou, like I said, right off the top was outstanding tonight. He just really set the tone," Daigneault said.
Dort's offensive profile this season has been a work in progress, but Daigneault pointed out the recent uptick.
"I mean, I think he obviously hasn't shot the ball this year as well as he has in the past, but lately he's come alive a little bit and then he really had the juice tonight defensively in the start of that game," Daigneault said. "The New York game recently on Sunday was one of his."
The other Thunder performance Daigneault flagged came from Isaiah Joe, whose floor spacing and transition shotmaking unlocked the offense against the Lakers' zone looks.
"Yeah, he was good. You know, they played a lot of zone tonight. In the third quarter they tried doubling the ball quite a bit and he's a threat in those situations especially," Daigneault said. "And he proved that tonight and transition as well. So he's a great player because he's got a great floor."
Daigneault refused to take a victory lap over the first-half shooting disparity that gave Oklahoma City an early lead.
"There was a make-or-miss element to the first half especially. I thought, big up, good looks - the data would back that up," he said. "I mean, they had pretty good shots that they shot below expected, but I thought our energy on the offensive glass, our energy to run on the misses, and our pressure is what allowed us to capitalize on what was a poor shooting performance from them."
Asked specifically about shot variance distorting the eye test, Daigneault doubled down on his respect for the Lakers.
"Yeah, I mean, there's shot variance every night. Obviously, that was a loud part of the first half of the game. We made shots, they did not. So I don't know that that was actually representative of where these two teams are. They've played exceptionally well coming into this game," Daigneault said.
The coach's read on the Lakers' identity - a slow-tempo, ruthlessly-executed style - lined up with what JJ Redick has been building all season around Doncic and DeAndre Ayton.
"Our pressure and our execution. That's a team they're incredibly slow-paced but very, very surgical with their execution. So your execution defensively has to be really on point against them, and we were early in the game," Daigneault said.
Daigneault made clear the Thunder will not be carrying anything from this game into the rematch later in the week.
"I talked about the shot variance just because we have high respect for them, and that's a team that has obviously proven that they're one of the better teams in the league right now. And so we play them again this week. That game will start at zero, and we need to be on it from the jump," he said.
The constant in all of this, Daigneault said, is the Thunder themselves. After five years of building together, OKC's identity does not move when the calendar or the opponent does.
"Yeah, not really. You know, this team is surgically consistent with the approach. They really are. They've been like that for years," Daigneault said. "You can't tell if you're in our gym if it's March or October. You can't tell if we're playing the Lakers or anybody else."
Asked about a hard fall on Dort that drew no whistle, Daigneault did not bite. "I asked the referees, and that was it. I wasn't beating that up," he said.
The Thunder, who Redick this week called the clear class of the Western Conference, will get the Lakers again on Thursday in a game that already looks like one of the most anticipated regular-season matchups of the year.
