OKC Thunder’s NBA Finals Lineup Change Shows Why They’re Ahead Of The Curve

The NBA playoffs are all about matchups. Teams that are versatile and can deploy multiple looks tend to have a leg up over those who stick with one style regardless of opponent. However, teams tend to use the early portion of a series as a feeling-out process before making drastic changes to their lineups or rotation patterns.

In Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder proved to be the exception to that rule. After rattling off a league-high 68 wins during the regular season and trotting out the same starting five throughout the entirety of the Western Conference playoff bracket, the Thunder shifted center Isaiah Hartenstein to the bench in favor of second-year guard Cason Wallace, who was making his first career playoff start.

The new-look Thunder got off to a hot start against the Indiana Pacers, particularly on defense, as they jumped out to a 12-point halftime lead while forcing 19 turnovers in the first half alone. However, their offense sputtered down the stretch, leaving just enough time for yet another Tyrese Haliburton game-winner.

That historic late-game meltdown resulted in plenty of second-guessing after Game 1. Former NBA video coordinator Mo Dakhil told Zach Lowe of The Ringer that it was “absurd” for Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault to begin the series that way. Basketball Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, who won two championships with the Detroit Pistons, was even more blistering with his criticism.

“Mark made an adjustment before the game even started by changing his lineup,” Thomas said ahead of Game 2 on Sunday. “And all of us know from sitting here, we are creatures of habit. And we won 68 games. And then we come to the NBA Finals and you change the lineup. That’s a red flag. That is a red flag, and if this series continues to go on, confidence now is gonna have to be something that we watch in the OKC players.”

Late in the first quarter of Game 2, the Thunder proceeded to grab a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. They led by double digits for the entire second half and cruised to a comfortable 123-107 victory to tie the Finals at one game apiece. So much for concerns about confidence.

Although the Thunder’s starting lineup change didn’t pay off with a victory in Game 1, that type of proactiveness is what sets them apart from the rest of the league. It’s one of the reasons why they’re now only three games from winning their first championship since they moved to OKC nearly 20 years ago.

The Mad Scientist

The starting lineup change wasn’t the only thing that Daigneault took flak for after Game 1. Some media members also questioned his decision to play 11 different players in what wound up being a one-point loss, particularly since coaches tend to whittle their rotations down by this point in the playoffs.

Granted, Ajay Mitchell played only three minutes and Kenrich Williams played only one, so the Thunder did effectively trot out a nine-man rotation in Game 1. However, they got outscored by three points with Mitchell on the floor and two points with Williams on the floor, which looks worse in retrospect given how close the game wound up being.

There’s a method to Daigneault’s madness, though. He’s intentional about changing lineups and rotation patterns to ensure the Thunder are equipped to handle whatever gets thrown at them on a game-by-game basis.

“We keep everything fluid for a reason so that it’s not these seismic events when we change a lineup at any point in time,” he told reporters during the Western Conference Finals. We changed the starting lineup during the season, we changed the starting lineup coming out of halftime. We changed the rotation almost nightly in the regular season and the playoffs. We try to normalize that for situations where we think we can be opportunistic.

“If we think there’s an opportunity in any part of the rotation to give ourselves a better chance to win a playoff game, we’re gonna do it. I would just say that’s in the water at this point. It’s not new for our guys especially.”

The Thunder have managed to dodge any significant injuries throughout the playoffs, so they haven’t had to worry about extended absences for any of their key players. However, that sort of deliberate tinkering can also later help them navigate thorny situations where one of their stars gets into early foul trouble or misses time.

Daigneault has been consistent about this stance for some time. He isn’t concerned about the perception of being the first team to blink by making a lineup or rotation change, either.

“There’s no shame in adjusting to your opponent,” he told reporters last year during the Western Conference Semifinals. Sometimes, if the cost outweighs the benefit, you adjust based on what your opponent is doing. We don’t really care who dictates the terms. Sometimes we do it, sometimes the opponent does it. We’re trying to figure out what the best thing for the team is.”

After Game 1, Daigneault told reporters that he moved Wallace into the starting lineup ahead of Hartenstein to give the Thunder “another perimeter guy” to throw at Haliburton and fellow Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard. He added that Wallace “started 40-something games” this year and that OKC “changed the lineup a million times” during the regular season “so that it’s not earth-shattering when we do it,” even in the playoffs.

That sets him apart from many of his contemporaries.

The Old Guard

Most coaches are far more reluctant to make major lineup or rotation changes ahead of a series. They often only do it when their backs are against the wall, such as when they’re facing a 2-0 or 3-0 series deficit.

Take head coach Tom Thibodeau, whom the New York Knicks just fired after their loss to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Knicks’ starting five of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns got outscored by 29 points in the first two games of that series, which the Pacers won by a combined eight points.

Thibodeau relented in Game 3, putting fellow center Mitchell Robinson into the starting lineup in place of Hart (with Hart’s blessing). It was too little, too late, though. The Pacers wound up winning the series in six games, and the Knicks proceeded to fire Thibodeau a few days later.

According to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, a “couple of players felt like Thibodeau played the starters too many minutes and felt he had an inability to adjust.” Another player “said he didn’t feel like he could play for Thibodeau if the coach returned next season.”

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, who’s seventh all-time in wins as a head coach, fell into the same trap against the Pacers in the opening round of the playoffs. After Kyle Kuzma finished with zero points on 0-of-5 shooting, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals and zero blocks in 22 minutes in the Bucks’ blowout Game 1 loss, Rivers trotted him out as a starter for three more games before finally shifting him to the bench in Game 5. Across that entire series, Kuzma averaged 5.8 points on 34.3% shooting, 2.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 20.4 minutes. The Bucks got outscored by 43 points with him on the floor.

These decisions aren’t always clear-cut. There’s risk in shaking up your starting unit, particularly if you haven’t proactively tried out different combinations throughout the regular season in anticipation of what you might need at a moment’s notice in the playoffs. If you jump the gun on a change and it backfires, you run the risk of getting lambasted like Daigneault did after Game 1 of the 2025 Finals.

However, that versatility is part of OKC’s identity. Rather than panic and revert right back to the dual-big lineup with Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren, Daigneault stuck with it in Game 2 and got rewarded with a comfortable win.

“What I would say is we have a lot of optionality, and when you have a lot of options and you choose one, you’re leaving others on the table.” Daigneault told reporters ahead of Game 2. “I think we are pretty familiar with the archetypes of our lineups and what the tradeoffs are, and one of the strengths of our team is we can deploy those at different times, different times in a game, different times in a series.

“I obviously opted to go away from that in Game 1. That’s not necessarily predictive of the rest of the series. That’s just where we started the series. That lineup has been very good for us and has very strong strengths and if we think it can help us in a game or in a portion of a game, then we’re going to go to it.”

Daigneault still largely stuck with one-big lineups featuring only Holmgren or Hartenstein in Game 2, although the two did share the court for a roughly four-minute stretch toward the end of the first quarter. Indiana briefly took a three-point lead, but the Thunder proceeded to go on a 9-0 run to end the quarter and seize a lead it would never relinquish.

The Pacers figure to go back to the drawing board ahead of Game 3 and come up with different looks to throw at the Thunder. Luckily, Daigneault has prepared them to be far more adaptable than most teams.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

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