Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault is not a robot. Sure, he may play the hits in press conferences like a Woody doll when you pull his pull string and he spits out there’s a snake in his boot, but unlike this mix of plastic and fabric, Daigneault has emotions. Ask any referee in the NBA this season.

The impressive thing about the Thunder’s bench boss is that these emotions don’t overwhelm or shake him. In this game, it would have been possible to go up and down as a counterpart to Tom Thibodeau, who is almost the exact opposite of Daigneault.

The New York Knicks saw five crisp 40 minutes and only used three players from the bench. The Thunder, on the other hand, played a total of ten players, none of whom earned more than 38 minutes. Oklahoma City won by ten.

However, things didn’t always go the way the Thunder wanted, in fact the tide only turned in the final act. At halftime it was all about the Knicks, even in the final frame it felt like New York had this game.

At various stages of this game, it would have been easy for Daigneault to fight fire with fire. Uncharacteristically, he leans on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein to soak up nearly every minute. flanked by Lu Dort and Cason Wallace – Oklahoma City’s two best defenders.

But despite falling behind by as many as 14 points and feeling overwhelmed at times by the Knicks’ starting lineup, Mark Daigneault didn’t shy away.

By staying true to his guns, he secured a win for the Thunder from the sideline. Surely he wouldn’t say that as he’s always quick to shift the credit onto the players and take all the blame. But it’s true. Few coaches in the NBA would resist the temptation to go star-for-star in a battle between two of the league’s best teams, fighting to maintain long winning streaks.

Even fewer would maintain this discipline at the emotional height of a game. When Oklahoma City tried to cut the deficit to two points after fighting all the way back, which led to a second timeout by the Knicks, it would have been easy to reinstate their superstar – after all, they were only a minute and a half old the regular check-in time for Gilgeous-Alexander. It didn’t happen.

Daigneault was with the team that brought the Thunder back, and they rewarded him with chips, making it a one-point game when Gilgeous-Alexander got back into the game with seven points in the final quarter with a few changes to go.

The MVP comes into a one-point game against a gasping Knicks team with fresh legs and a normal rotation pattern? Anyone in Bricktown would sign up for this situation 10 times out of 10.

It paid off, the superstar completed the comeback with eight points, three assists, one rebound and a steal in the fourth quarter.

The Thunder got into an on-field brawl while under the influence of drugs, but otherwise remained true to who they were since Sam Presti hired the 39-year-old prodigy.

In return for this belief? A player like Aaron Wiggins, who consistently appears in the starting lineup and performs in different roles each game, rewards his bench boss with a red-hot fourth quarter that included 15 points, four triples, an and-one and a dime to Lu Dort for an exclamation mark 3.

On the other hand, the Knicks were -10 in a 10-point loss and were firing on all cylinders when the Thunder shifted gears in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma City won by 18 points.

Song of the day: Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen.

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