Young starting lineup’s success is telling:
An important note is all seven of the matches the youngsters started occurred on the second night of B2B sets. The Thunder were 4-3 in these games while the quintet Mark Daigneault prefers amassed a 3-2 record when they all started and were 4-2 when Maledon started with the core trio.
To put this in perspective, the Lakers record on the second game of their five B2B sets is 2-3, ditto for the 76ers. The Nets possess the same 4-3 record as the Thunder in their similar efforts. These are the toughest matches to collect victories yet this young quintet is succeeding in these difficult contests.
A further dive offers more relevance for just how impressive this Thunder quintet has been. The Hawks and Mavericks are clubs hoping for a deep playoff run but recorded a losing record (2-4) in second nights of B2B sets.
The current teams possessing the lottery favorite positioning aren’t faring well in second games of B2B sets with the Wolves, Kings, and Pistons recording a 2-6 record under those circumstances while the Rockets are 2-2.
The youngest clubs (by average roster age) are the Wolves and Grizzlies with the latter also flailing in B2B second matches (2-3).
A further dive into the statistics from these five games offers more context: