Thunder Coach Drops Strong Statement After Besting Warriors

Getty Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault. Daigneault had some thoughts on the Golden State Warriors after the March 7 matchup with the Dubs.

After ripping off five straight wins, the Golden State Warriors have now lost two consecutive games. Golden State was unable to fend of the young Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night, adding yet another road loss to their season total.

Despite the Warriors’ struggles on the road, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault still considered his team’s victory an impressive one. He pinpointed what his team did correctly in order to take home the win.

“You’ve got to take punches to beat them because they keep throwing them,” Daigneault explained via the Oklahoma City Thunder’s YouTube channel. “They score in bunches and they do a great job of generating their own energy. The game can be going poorly for them and then next thing you know it’s like an 8-0 spurt and they get themselves going. They’ve done that for a decade. So, you have to be able to take some and I thought we did a great job of that tonight. Lot of runs, but we never let ourselves get knocked down. We ate some punches and got going.”

Josh Giddey Discusses Thunder’s Strong Showing vs. Warriors

One of the driving forces behind OKC’s strong showing against the Warriors, was guard Josh Giddey’s triple-double. Giddey posted 17 points, 17 assists, and 11 rebounds to help propel the Thunder to a 137-128 victory.

He later spoke with the media about what goes into beating a team like Golden State. Giddey explained that he was happy with Oklahoma City’s late game execution against the Dubs.

“A team like that is not going to go away easily. Steph (Curry) made some big shots, Klay (Thompson), you know, (Jonathan) Kuminga was good down the stretch for them,” he told reporters. “Obviously we were trying to take away a lot of their threes, so they got some dunks and layups. But, you kind of have to pick your poison with those guys down the stretch. But, I thought on the other end we executed really well. They started blitzing Shai the last few minutes. Guys were ready to make plays out of it, we got open threes and layups. I think both ends of the floor for the most part of the game we executed the game-plan, we took care of what we needed to, and it was a good win against a really good team.

Mychal Thompson Casts Serious Doubt on Warriors Title Hopes

Two straight losses aren’t exactly what Warriors fans were hoping for when news broke of Curry returning to the lineup.

Sunday’s loss against the Los Angeles Lakers was a tough one. Tough enough that Warriors star Klay Thompson’s father, Mychal Thompson, casted some doubt on the team’s title hopes.

Thompson, a two-time NBA champion with L.A. in 1987 and 88, pointed Golden State’s lack of pain presence, during a recent appearance on KNBR’s “Murph & Mac” show.

“I’ve been talking about this all year long, but nobody wants to listen to me up there in the Bay,” he said. “You’ve got to get bigger. Last night, it was old-school basketball — the Lakers had this dominant guy [Anthony Davis] in the middle, and they used him. Kevon Looney being the biggest guy for the Warriors could be a problem in the playoffs. Kevon plays his heart out, but sometimes the size can just wear you out in the paint, and if you’re going to beat the Warriors, you can’t outshoot them, so you’ve just got to go inside and try to beat them up in the paint.”