OKC Thunder Big Man Dishes on Coming Off the Bench

The first surprise of the NBA Finals came 30 minutes before tip-off. Mark Daigneault elected to change his starting five for the first time all postseason, bringing veteran big man Isaiah Hartenstein off the bench in favor of second-year guard Cason Wallace.

This basically happened in the Western Conference Finals, where Hartenstein was in the first five in name only. His minutes faded as games did despite going through the pregame ceremony in each contest. Many believed this would be the Thunder's best course of action, rolling with one center on the floor at a time.

After the game, we gathered around Isaiah Hartenstein in the locker room to discuss the Thunder falling in Game 1 and his role coming off the bench. Hartenstein revealed that it was something he knew was happening.

“Kinda knew, Mark [Daigneault] does a great job of communicating, so we talked about it I think, it was like yesterday we talked about it…I’m here to do whatever is best for the team. I trust Mark, and I think again, it’s worked in the past. Cason [Wallace] has been amazing throughout the playoffs. He’s been amazing when he started in the regular season. So, I don’t think that contributed to us losing the game, we had control over the game, the whole game. So it was more, again, kinda more the Denver series where we left that go. And that’s on us," Hartenstein detailed postgame.

It is to be determined if the Thunder will switch back its first five in Game 2, but Hartenstein is right on the money. The starting lineup did not cost this team in Game 1.