Mark Daigneault worked his magic with a technical foul vs Cavs

Another week, another Thunderous Intentions notebook! The Oklahoma City Thunder are still playing good basketball as the team gears up for February. With one game to play, the OKC Thunder sit at 9-4 in January under head coach Mark Daigneault.

Their latest win against the Cavs is one of their most impressive. In today’s notebook, we will tie up loose ends from that game, including the Thunder bench boss getting his third technical foul of the season, preview the week ahead, and explore two of the more hilarious stories this season has to offer.

Mark Daigneault was handed his third technical foul, and it worked to perfection to help the OKC Thunder edge out the Cavs

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been on the wrong end of many tough calls and have seen their matchups double them up regarding the number of free throw attempts over the last two weeks of games.   This trend carried into the Cavs game to start things off on Friday when Mark Daigneault finally got T’d up.

This had been brewing for Mark Daigneault for the past week; after the Hawks game, when asked about the free throw disparity, Daigneault said the officials explained the difference away, given the number of threes OKC was launching. However, they had more drives in the game than Atlanta, which prompted Daigneault to provide a witty retort “If [the refs] are going to give me that explanation, I would like for it to be right.”

After Mark Daigneault earned his third technical foul, the Thunder earned 24 of their 25 free throws against the Cavs, who finished with 18 free throws. Safe to say the T worked. Kenrich Williams even explained that the head man got the team “riled up,”

Before the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Cavs on Friday, Jaylin Williams and Josh Giddey were messing around during shootaround, which prompted the Arkansas product to challenge Giddey to go to slam a dunk off two feet using two hands. Giddey smirked, finished his free throw routine, then did it to the owes and ahs of Williams and assistant coach Grant Gibbs.

Williams gave constructed criticism saying, “Next time you gotta hang on the rim!” when I asked about Giddey’s dunk, Grant Gibbs laughed and said, “he is tall, so that helps.”

Along with this story from Friday, it was revealed that four players voted for Chet Holmgren to make the NBA All-Star game before he even stepped on the hardwood. Who could these jokesters be? One solid guess is Jalen Suggs, Holmgren’s lifelong best friend. Suggs only received one vote, which could have been a return vote from the 2nd overall pick in 2022.

The Thunder enter this week 12.5 out of the worst record in the league, ten games back of the fourth worst record where OKC rested the last two seasons, a half a game out of the NBA Play-in tournament, a game out of the 6th seed, and two games back from home court advantage in the playoffs.

This week: vs. Warriors, @ Rockets, vs. Rockets

Record Prediction: 2-1

Song of the week: Higher by Creed