{"id":1964812,"date":"2026-05-31T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1964812"},"modified":"2026-05-31T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:00:00","slug":"can-chet-holmgren-push-back-help-thunder-solve-their-spurs-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1964812","title":{"rendered":"Can Chet Holmgren push back, help Thunder solve their Spurs problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Chet Holmgren stood tall, one hand in the air, feet off the ground \u2014 tall and helpless to what was about to come.<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama didn\u2019t pause. And why would he stop? Wembanyama is tall like Holmgren, only taller. He\u2019s a defensive cheat code like Holmgren, only scarier. He\u2019s skilled with the basketball like Holmgren, only smoother.<\/p>\n

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No, this was the Spurs star, long and lean like a limousine, entering the intersection after the light turned yellow, foot on the gas, fearless of the consequences. He attacked like a player insulted by any comparisons to the obstacle between him and the rim.<\/p>\n

In what might be the play of the Western Conference finals, Wembanyama simply stretched his arms over Holmgren\u2019s reach and delivered a two-handed facial that illustrated everything that had and would play out in the first playoff series between these versions of these teams.<\/p>\n

Later, Chet Holmgren sat down on a bench in the middle of Oklahoma City\u2019s locker room. The room was nearly silent, Holmgren\u2019s voice rising just above a whisper as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.<\/p>\n

The Spurs eliminated the NBA\u2019s defending champions 111-103<\/a> Saturday night. Since the beginning of the 2024-25 NBA season \u2014 a 19-month span \u2014 no team had been better than the Thunder.<\/p>\n

Now, they\u2019ve got a team to chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a unique team in terms of personnel, what their personnel does,\u201d Holmgren said softly. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s another team that has the same kind of play style.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There is \u2014 it\u2019s the Thunder. But the Spurs didn\u2019t just match that style; they exceeded it, and they did it faster than anyone might\u2019ve expected. The Thunder can look down the bench and see Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, two offensive weapons they could\u2019ve desperately used, and wonder if things would\u2019ve been different had they been healthy. But they can also look at Wembanyama and the trouble he caused Holmgren and the Thunder all season.<\/p>\n

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In four regular-season games against the Spurs, Holmgren made only 38.7 percent of his shots. He scored just 42 combined points. In the Thunder\u2019s loss to the Spurs in the In-Season Tournament, he fared slightly better, with 17 points and seven rebounds, but it wasn\u2019t as good as Wembanyama\u2019s 22 points and nine rebounds (in only 21 minutes).<\/p>\n

In this series, the matchup wasn\u2019t close.<\/p>\n

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Eight points, 13 points, 14 points, 10 points, 16 points, 10 points, and, in Game 7, four points. Nearly all of them were forgettable. They don\u2019t tell the entire story \u2014 the game is more than putting the ball in the basket \u2014 and the Thunder\u2019s willingness to sacrifice self for team is part of what got them one win away from another trip to the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

But in this series, with Williams and Mitchell out, those numbers weren\u2019t enough, and they definitely weren\u2019t good enough for a third-team All-NBA player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not all on him,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cI actually thought he played his minutes pretty well. You know, I thought that run at the end of the second quarter that got us back going and cut into the (lead), I mean, he was a huge part of that in ways that may not be in the box score visibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not wrong. Holmgren was highly impactful in that stretch. He jumped with more force to disrupt a Wembanyama layup, he fought for multiple offensive rebounds and he drew a foul on an aggressive cut to the rim. That stretch did help the Thunder back into the game.<\/p>\n

The problem \u2014 it was only a stretch.<\/p>\n

Instead of hitting the gas when he saw Wembanyama, Holmgren kept hitting the brakes. Wembanyama\u2019s power as a deterrent has turned away penetrating guards throughout his three NBA seasons. But this was him turning away a fun-house mirror doppelganger time after time, helping take away one of the things that make the Thunder so special.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
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\n A hard-fought Game 7 win on the road put the San Antonio Spurs back in the NBA Finals.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

It feels like a problem Oklahoma City is going to have to solve this summer, starting with Holmgren.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no running from improvement,\u201d Holmgren said. \u201cI always look at it as no matter what \u2014 good, bad, win, loss, whatever it might be \u2014 you have to continue to improve. So, that\u2019s the mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bar that the Thunder set has now been raised. And while the Thunder, with key roster decisions coming on Lu Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein and more, will look different, it\u2019s a smart bet that the Thunder and the Spurs will be fighting with each other again.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think in the summertime, you just try to get better, and then you use the 82 games to figure out the bar and what needs to be done, especially in the NBA,\u201d Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cThings happen in the summertime \u2014 like trades, free agency, new additions \u2026 the NBA this year looks completely different than it did the year we won. \u2026But they\u2019ll probably be somewhere in that mix, for sure, next season as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two teams played 12 times this season \u2014 the Spurs won eight. For that to flip, Holmgren needs to address what looks like some kind of block \u2014 even if the Thunder think otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that needs to be solved,\u201d Alex Caruso said defiantly. \u201cWe could have won the game tonight, and we would have been asking them maybe the same thing. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s this huge narrative of like, this is a bugaboo. \u2026 We should have played better and won the game and been in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a good team, they\u2019re young. We\u2019re a good team, we\u2019re young. Both will probably be around for a while, so we gotta get better and try to win next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thunder\u2019s confidence, of which there was plenty, certainly needs to be punctured. The crowd, which earlier in the game had gleefully chanted \u201cMove, b\u2014\u201d along to the Ludacris song, left in silence while the Spurs celebrated, having shoved them out of the top tier in the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than just one guy out there,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said of Wembanyama. \u201cThey\u2019re a really good basketball team.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as of Saturday, they\u2019re better than the Thunder. And for that to change, it\u2019ll need to start with the player the Spurs ran through most.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Chet Holmgren stood tall, one hand in the air, feet off the ground \u2014 tall and helpless to what was about to come. Victor Wembanyama didn\u2019t pause. And why would he stop? Wembanyama is tall like Holmgren, only taller. He\u2019s a defensive cheat code like Holmgren, only scarier. He\u2019s skilled with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1964812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1964812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1964812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1964812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1964812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}