Chet Holmgren, SGA, Thunder offense come alive to clobber Pelicans in Game 2

EditorLast Update :
Chet Holmgren, SGA, Thunder offense come alive to clobber Pelicans in Game 2

OKLAHOMA CITY — After helping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander throttle the New Orleans Pelicans, Chet Holmgren crashed his teammate’s postgame interview.

Of course, that’s nothing new for the Oklahoma City Thunder. The difference this time is Holmgren didn’t just stand in the background and bark as these exuberant young Thunder players are prone to do. Instead, Holmgren grabbed TNT sideline reporter Allie LaForce’s microphone and spoke.

“He’s too humble to say it,” Holmgren said with his arm draped around Gilgeous-Alexander, “but this is the MVP right here. MVP of the league. I’m going to say it for him because he won’t say it.”

Gilgeous-Alexander looked the part again after a game-high 33 points in the Thunder’s 124-92 victory over the Pelicans in Game 2 on Wednesday inside Paycom Center. But as the Thunder stretched their series lead to 2-0, Holmgren also showed he’s quite the sidekick.

After a 15-point, 11-rebound, five-block effort in his playoff debut Sunday, Holmgren confidently said, “I can only go up from here.” He wasted no time proving his point.

Holmgren scored 15 of his 26 points in the opening period. He made all five of his shot attempts in the frame and his first seven for the game before finishing 9 of 13 from the floor.

“In the first game, I hit my first one and then threw up like four bricks after that,” Holmgren said. “So I just wanted to come out ready tonight to make my shots and capitalize on advantages that we have out there. And I did a good job of that early.”

Holmgren reversed the standard offensive approach. He started outside before moving inside. It only showcased his vast skill set. His first three buckets came from beyond the arc. On the first, he stepped into a catch-and-shoot transition 3. Then he popped out of a high ball screen and buried a straight-away bomb. Both buckets came off assists from Jalen Williams, who had a game-high seven to go with 21 points. Holmgren’s third 3-ball came on a spot-up, off a swing pass from Luguentz Dort.

Holmgren stepped smoothly into each shot and swished all three without hesitation. His next four baskets came from within 10 feet: an offensive rebound and putback he manufactured from the dunker’s spot, a two-dribble pull-up against Brandon Ingram from just outside the lane, a slip after showing a screen before an uncontested dunk and a trouble-free finish following Williams’ drive-and-dish for a two-handed dunk.

“I thought he had a really good blend,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought he had good recognition of how they were playing him. They were throwing different looks at him. They had (Herb) Jones on him at one point. They played some zone. They had (Larry) Nance (Jr.) on him. They had (Jonas) Valančiūnas on him.

“So they moved around the matchups, and I thought he just had great recognition and a great feel for how they were covering him and what he needed to do to free us up and free himself up.”

Holmgren’s response to an almost equally hot start from Valančiūnas, the Pelicans’ assertive center, stood out as much as the scoring. When Valančiūnas scored New Orleans’ first 11 points with all of his field goals coming from in close, Holmgren didn’t panic or veer from the game plan. He knew less than three minutes had ticked off the game clock. Both teams hadn’t even settled into the game.

“He got it going early and we were able to adjust and figure out how to keep him from scoring 100,” Holmgren said. “He was on pace.”

After making five of his first six shots, Valančiūnas managed only eight more points on just 3-of-8 shooting the rest of the game. The early damage wasn’t done solely against Holmgren in isolation. Instead, Valančiūnas got rolling on a mix of set plays the Pelicans ran for him. He did work Holmgren along the baseline for a strong reverse layup on the opening possession. But Valančiūnas then tapped in a putback, hit a floater with Holmgren in rotation and two layups after Holmgren helped off and had to recover.

“You can’t take everything away,” Daigneault said. “And I thought he did a really good job of hanging in there. Some of the early Valančiūnas baskets, he was helping and it was rotational stuff. A couple were offensive rebounds. So it wasn’t just pure, point-of-attack post-ups. There was other stuff that Valanciunas got into the game during that stretch that we could have cleaned up. But Chet did a great job on him tonight.”

Valančiūnas, who holds a 10-year and 57-pound advantage over Holmgren, repeatedly plowed into Holmgren on post-ups like he was trying to put a hole in his chest. Valančiūnas banged and bumped, using however much time it took to send his message. He wanted to overpower Holmgren. His goal was to physically intimidate him.


Jonas Valančiūnas of the Pelicans has a bulk advantage over Chet Holmgren of the Thunder, but Oklahoma City has a 2-0 series lead over New Orleans. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

Holmgren never backed down. On a second-quarter possession two minutes into the period, Valančiūnas pounded four dribbles from the left low block, forcefully slamming his left shoulder into Holmgren’s chest after each dribble. Holmgren gave up ground. Valančiūnas inched closer to the rim. But when Valančiūnas turned for a baby hook, Holmgren was there. He rose to meet the ball at its apex, swatting it back at Valančiūnas to send Thunder fans into a frenzy.

“I’m just trying to play good defense,” Holmgren said. “You don’t want him to think, ‘This is easy. I can just kind of go wherever I want on the floor,’ especially with the ball in his hands. So I’m just trying to go out there and compete at a high level.”

Gilgeous-Alexander knew that was the kind of partner he was getting back shortly after the Thunder selected him with the No. 2 overall pick in 2022. Holmgren displayed the same fearlessness when the two first shared a court.

“He came to Toronto that summer and we played pick-up against — the league’s called CBL,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We played pick-up against them, one of the teams. It was a bigger guy. And he was battling physically even though he was giving up a lot of pounds. And talking smack and all that stuff. So I knew Chet had that fire in him from that day a couple of summers ago.”

Holmgren laughed off the physical punishment when asked what his chest felt like following such a beating.

“I’m good, man,” he said.

(Top photo of Chet Holmgren: Martin McGrew / NBAE via Getty Images)