The Oklahoma City Thunder dropped Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Monday night, losing 122-115 to the San Antonio Spurs in a double-overtime battle at Paycom Center. After the loss, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault pointed repeatedly to Oklahoma City’s offensive issues while crediting San Antonio for controlling key stretches of the game.
“They did a great job,” Daigneault said multiple times during his postgame press conference. “We have a lot of runway to improve. We collectively can play with more intentionality on both ends of the floor.”
The Thunder entered the series after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round, but San Antonio immediately disrupted Oklahoma City’s rhythm. The Spurs won for the fifth time in six meetings against the Thunder this season behind 41 points and 24 rebounds from Victor Wembanyama.
Daigneault said Oklahoma City struggled to find offensive balance early.
“It certainly offensively took us a little while to get a little bit of a rhythm in the game in terms of balance,” Daigneault said. “I thought our threes were good in the first half. We didn’t shoot it great. I actually thought we had higher quality threes in the first half than we did the rest of the game.”
The Thunder attempted 45 three-pointers and finished with only 40 rebounds compared to San Antonio’s 61. Oklahoma City also shot 41% from the field while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled through a 7-for-23 night despite finishing with 24 points and 12 assists.
Daigneault credited the Spurs’ defensive structure, especially Wembanyama’s presence around the rim.
“He’s a great player with high impact obviously and when you play against those players, it’s kind of an acquired thing,” Daigneault said. “You can talk about it as much as you want, but you got to develop a feel for it.”
San Antonio consistently sent extra defenders toward Gilgeous-Alexander while Wembanyama protected the paint behind the action. Daigneault said Oklahoma City started finding answers later in the game.
“We figured out some things to get him a little bit more cracks,” Daigneault said. “This is the beginning of the series, not the end.”
One of Oklahoma City’s biggest positives came from Alex Caruso, who scored 31 points off the bench in the second-highest scoring game of his career. The veteran guard hit 8 of 14 from three-point range while also spending time defending Wembanyama.
“It was a great game, and he played a great game,” Daigneault said. “His shot making kept us in it while we were trying to find our footing offensively.”
Daigneault also praised Caruso’s defensive versatility despite the major size disadvantage against the 7-foot-4 Spurs star.
“Intelligence first of all, instincts, competitiveness,” Daigneault said. “It starts all there.”
The Thunder also welcomed back Jalen Williams after a six-game absence caused by a hamstring strain. Williams scored 26 points in 37 minutes, and Daigneault said the Thunder carefully monitored his workload.
“If it was a regulation game, we would have had him right around 30,” Daigneault said. “We were trying to thread the needle of obviously competing in the game and using him and also trying to keep him healthy.”
Even after losing home-court advantage, Daigneault maintained confidence in Oklahoma City’s ability to adjust before Game 2 on Wednesday.
“One of the things that I love about this team is our problem solving,” Daigneault said. “We’ve been in these series before. We’ve hit these types of plateaus.”
