The Oklahoma City Thunder have been a dominant team all year, leading the NBA with a 68–14 record led by league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. While the young Thunder haven't "been there before," as the team lost in the Western Conference semifinals in their first playoff appearance under coach Mark Daigneault a year ago, they've absolutely looked the part this postseason.
OKC swept the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round and survived a tough seven-game series against a battle-tested Denver Nuggets squad to reach the conference finals. After the Thunder's Game 4 win over the Timberwolves on Monday night—a 128–126 bounce-back road win after a blowout loss in Game 3—Daigneault says there's very little he has to learn about his squad.
"I learned nothing," the 40-year-old coach said after the game. "This team's easy to bet on. We had a very normal couple days leading into it, very normal shootaround today, and there was just kind of a sense that we were going to come out and it would be a much different game, just tonally, and it was. So didn't learn anything about the resilience or perseverance."
Mark Daigneault on what he learned about the Thunder tonight,
— Derek Parker (@DParkOK) May 27, 2025
“Nothing,” pic.twitter.com/q6X1fNaXrc
That doesn't mean that Oklahoma City is a finished product, of course. Daigneault acknowledged that his team hasn't been this far in a playoff run before, and that each game is a new experience for the group. Even so, they've been relatively unflappable despite facing some adversity over the last few rounds.
"We're still growing," he said. "These are all new experiences for us ... but from a resilience standpoint, this is the last group of guys you have to worry about."
After splitting a pair of games in Minnesota, Oklahoma City will look to close out the Western Conference finals in front of the Thunder faithful on Wednesday night. Tipoff is set for 8:30 p.m. ET.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as 'I Learned Nothing': Thunder Coach Drops Incredibly Confident Line After Game 4 Win.
