May 19, 2026, 9:00 p.m. CT
Falling behind seven points in the opening minutes, Mark Daigneault has seen enough. He pulled the plug on their championship-winning starting lineup. Not even a full three minutes into their epic Western Conference Finals clash, Isaiah Hartenstein headed to the bench in favor of Alex Caruso.
The Oklahoma City Thunder ate their first gut punch of the 2026 NBA playoffs. They were on the wrong side of a nail-biter in a 122-115 double overtime Game 1 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. They open the series in a 0-1 deficit.
One of the most anticipated postseason clashes in recent memory, the Thunder and Spurs played like a couple of NBA juggernauts who showed they’re several tiers ahead of the rest of the competition. Jam-packed with NBA storylines that had most media inside Paycom Center pull an impromptu all-nighter, Daigneault talked about one of the more subtle ones in the aftermath.
Could the Thunder change their starting lineup? And maybe more importantly, should they?
Hartenstein only logged 12 minutes in Game 1. He had two points, two rebounds and two assists. He was a plus-two in his minutes. The Thunder replaced him with Cason Wallace to start the second half. Didn’t take long for OKC to learn that you can’t play a traditional center against Victor Wembanyama or pay for it by giving up several easy looks around the rim.
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Daigneault said that the Thunder planned for Hartenstein to play the opening minutes before Caruso subbed in. The latter had an epic Game 1 that shouldn’t get lost in NBA lore. He dropped an unreal 31 points and shot 8-of-14 from 3. The 32-year-old almost carried OKC to an improbable win.
The Thunder depended on Caruso for most of the second half — which included the two overtime periods. The 32-year-old logged 32 minutes. Which is basically the equivalent of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 51 minutes, considering how physically taxing his defensive style is.
Daigneault said he wanted Hartenstein to match Luke Kornet’s minutes. The Spurs reserve is sneakily an offensive rebounding weapon. The plan worked as he was limited to three rebounds and one assist. He only logged nine minutes and was a minus-nine.
“I’m never going to give you guys lineups, rotations, anything like that,” Daigneault said. “All I’ll say is the plan last night was to get to that pretty quickly. Mainly to get him into the Kornet minutes.”
Barring something unforeseen, Kornet will remain in a bench role this series. Does that mean the Thunder would be better off to keep Hartenstein on the bench? Especially when Wembanyama is off the floor? Think there’s a sound argument for that. Especially with how much easier OKC played when Chet Holmgren was the sole big man on the floor.
I guess we’ll see. The Thunder enter a must-win scenario in Game 2. That means they can’t afford another slow start in the first half and play catch-up in the second half. Welcome to the NBA playoffs, OKC. The first two rounds were basically a walk in the park. This is the real deal. And it took the Spurs one game to show them that.