OKC Thunder's Mark Daigneault Details Preparation for Second Round

The Oklahoma City Thunder still awaits its next opponent, but that hasn't prevented it from preparing for the second round with "fundamentals."

Apr 26, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault reacts toward an official during the fourth quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies during game four for the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

A convincing sweep over the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round has given the Oklahoma City Thunder more than enough time to rest up before the NBA playoffs advance.

It awaits the outcome of the matchup between the Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers, in which the Nuggets took a 3-2 series lead on Tuesday night with a 131-115 win. Jamal Murray put up a whopping 43 points, five rebounds, seven assists and three steals to lead the charge.

The tide is heading Denver's way, but LA can't be counted out quite yet. Until the opponent is officially determined, Oklahoma City will focus on itself.

"We haven't worked on anything relative to them yet," head coach Mark Daigneault said. "We want to focus on the fundamentals that are going to matter no matter who we play, because we can't predict who we're going to play."

On the outside it might come as a shock, but the Thunder hasn't even paid much attention to the series. It played the Nuggets and Clippers a plethora of times in the regular season, so it already has an understanding of how it matches up against either opponent.

Sure, a playoff setting is different, but not enough to where the game is completely different. The adjustments are what comes into play — though that takes actually playing each other to figure out.

"I haven't watched the entire thing yet or studied it yet, watched a little bit (and) our staff obviously watched it," Daigneault said. "A lot of the same stuff from the regular season, teams don't change fundamentally who they are. Players' tendencies don't really change."

In a matter of one or two games, Oklahoma City will know for good. The second round is where its journey ended a year ago, and the goal is to reach further than that this time around.

There's no question that Daigneault and the Thunder are doing everything to prepare for the next team. From here until then, that will only continue.

"Once you're in a series with another team, how you interact with that team does influence who you play, how you play, that sort of thing," Daigneault said. "We're definitely seeing that in this series on both ends ... we'll learn as much as we can."