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Back in NBA Playoffs, how is OKC Thunder dealing with time off before Sunday's opener?
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- Back in NBA Playoffs, how is OKC Thunder dealing with time off before Sunday's opener?
Even if just for a matter of hours, not days, Chet Holmgren will ice his now softball-sized kneecaps. Mark Daigneault , though not like him to, can let his clipboard and projector breathe. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander , tugged at from all angles by MVP discussions and the weight of a franchise, can let his shoulders drop.
Even after becoming the youngest No. 1 seed in history after Sunday's win, the Thunder has plenty to prove. It'll still be carded by the league's bouncers , its mature and chin-checked contenders. But for a couple days, OKC can dwell in its glory.
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For a couple days, the Thunder can relax. Or at least a day and change in Daigneault's words.
"We're gonna prioritize rest over anything else," Daigneault said. "We'll start to ramp up a little bit on Wednesday, Thursday, and then descend the week going into the playoffs."
More: OKC Thunder is back in NBA Playoffs, but which play-in team would be scariest foe?
Thunder players huddle before Sunday's regular-season finale against Mavericks at Paycom Center. OKC will face the No. 8 seed in the first round of the playoffs, starting Sunday.
Come Tuesday, he'll be back to spewing Markisms inside the reverberating walls of the Thunder ION facility on what he calls a light day. On Wednesday, he'll begin throwing darts at the board, trying to properly direct his wisdom during a week when OKC's opponent won't be finalized until the weekend.
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The hernia of a three-way tie in a historic West is in the past. The shirts handed out after the Thunder's divisional title will end up crumpled in a closet. Sunday marks the start of the postseason , OKC's first since 2020. Even if OKC defied its youth for 57 wins, that reality is reset.
"When we wake up Tuesday morning, we're zero and zero and truly zero and zero," Daigneault said. "It's a new season and everything everybody did in the regular season no longer matters other than home court and seeding."
Daigneault almost exclusively refused to publicly talk about the postseason before his team clinched its berth. He's not one to make assumptions or dwell on expectations, even with his team heading down a painfully obvious path.
But he'd been calculating for some time. When talking about rest, he made mention of a long premeditated, confident plan to balance rest and drive during the upcoming week. And since clinching a playoff spot, he's emerged with a nuanced understanding of the postseason, which can look almost entirely different from the regular season.
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The emotional tolls, the intangible things that stretch beyond forcing turnovers and two-big lineups.
More: OKC Thunder clinches top seed in West for NBA Playoffs with rout of Dallas Mavericks
"In the playoffs, you play Game 1, one team wins, one team loses," Daigneault started. "The team that wins, everybody's gonna start saying they're gonna win the championship. The team that loses, everybody says that the star player is gonna get traded and you've got to be able to get yourself back, get ready for Game 2 amidst all of that noise and all that noise gets heightened around the playoffs because interest is high."
Daigneault is aware of the element of mystery behind awaiting a play-in opponent and already knowing your playoff opponent as soon as this past weekend. But he isn't treating it like a maze, or some Rubik's Cube of impossible combinations.
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Asked whether his staff would split into factions like NCAA tournament do, dividing prep based on possible matchups, Daigneault noted that the tournament brings on opponents that teams have likely never played.
The West is the West.
"We have a body of work against all these teams over the years, you know, with individual players and their tendencies," Daigneault said. "Nobody's starting from scratch in the NBA. It's a very closed environment with 30 teams."
More: OKC Thunder is back in NBA Playoffs, but which play-in team would be scariest foe?
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) speaks to the crowd before an NBA basketball game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas Mavericks at Paycom in Oklahoma City, Sunday, April 14, 2024.
The Thunder has a sample size to go on with each of the play-in teams. The actual trickiness comes in the players and subsequent actions missing from previous games. In the strides some of the play-in teams have possibly taken since previous meetings.
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The Warriors, who have an uphill battle in the play-in tournament, didn't have Draymond Green in two of their meetings with OKC. The Pelicans didn't have Brandon Ingram the last time they hosted the Thunder.
But time seemingly won't be spent in Oklahoma City dwelling on what-ifs, on randomness and what lies in the play-in abyss.
"We're gonna show up to practice and focus on ourselves," Holmgren said of the upcoming week. "Like we would do even if we knew who we're playing, and focus on what we got to get better at where we can improve."
For a couple days, OKC will reset its battery life, and maybe even watch a couple play-in games in secret. It'll spend most of the week ready to be carded by an entirely new, more buff set of Western Conference bouncers.
More: OKC Thunder's Mark Daigneault voted NBCA Coach of the Year
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder back in NBA Playoffs, but must await first-round opponent
