How Chet Holmgren competed with the reigning MVP and made OKC dream

For six minutes, you could see exactly why the Thunder felt like they had to back up the Brinks truck for Isaiah Hartenstein this summer… and why his absence earlier in the season because of a broken bone in his left hand for Oklahoma City against one in particular The Denver Nuggets team spent all of last season battling for the No. 1 seed in the West.

It's not exactly surprising if Nikola Jokić gets where he wants, if he wants to do whatever he wants; That's like being a three-time Most Valuable Player Do. But as he strolled briskly through the visitors' Thunder at the start of Thursday – six points, three assists, two rebounds, a block and a steal in the first half of the first quarter, completely controlling the game – it seemed as if one could it sees the boundary of Oklahoma City's pre-existing structure.

Yes, having the extremely talented Chet Holmgren as a full-time center offers many benefits to a Thunder offense that wants to five-out as often as possible. But you're relying on a 7-foot-1 bundle of bamboo to stand up, block, and take down a huge, roaring monster like Jokić all by himself – rather than tagging along with another, beefier 7-foot bundle in Hartenstein. Teaming up length on the ball with more length behind coverage, which the Timberwolves used so well in the 2024 playoffs – seemed like a recipe for being pushed around inside, missing out on offensive rebounds and generally not being able to to slow down a Denver offense designed to pulverize.

And then the game continued and it became clear that, no matter how calmly held, Bamboo is much stronger than it looks.

TNT color commentator Stan Van Gundy said it several times Thursday night, but only because repeating it was boring: In a game featuring the top two finishers in the 2023-24 MVP voting, winner Jokić and runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, it was Holmgren , who just started his second season and often looked like the best player on the floor. After that shaky early start, Holmgren shined, finishing the game with 25 points, 14 rebounds and five assists, a career-high 36 minutes, in a 102-87 Thunder victory – an impressive, emphatic performance for the most part the second half. didn't even feel as close as that last lead.

The 22-year-old persisted with Jokić's early bulldozer and committed to getting the job done early – trying to get deep to the basket and pushing the bigger man away from the basket so he could catch the ball further from the rim, and fighting Nagel using all means possible to block passes that hit the post or at least ensure that Jokić doesn't get a clean catch. He mastered the shoulder check and demonstrated impressive core strength to maintain balance, allowing him to use his enormous 7-foot wingspan to continue delivering powerful strikes from above even after taking a step:

Holmgren acted first against Jokić And He was the last line of defense all night and, with plenty of help from the Thunder roster's elite threats, was dominant. He grabbed 10 defensive rebounds and knocked down several others, some of which limited Denver to one shot during OKC's 18-2 third-quarter run to open the game. He finished the game with 11 contested shots and two deflections to go, along with four blocks and two steals; Denver shot just 6 of 18 while defending the shooter, including a 5 of 11 mark (45.5%) at the rim, according to Second Spectrum.

Holmgren also made his presence felt on the other end, using the threat of his shot – despite missing all five of his 3-pointers on Thursday, which was basically the only thing he didn't do in the opening game – and using his speed advantage to attack and score closeouts Midrange pull-up. He rolled hard to the basket from the pick-and-roll and used his length and finesse to finish through contact.

He kept Oklahoma City's drive-and-kick machine moving by looking up and applying pressure downhill to gain defensive help before distributing the ball to his teammates; He finished with five assists, which he only surpassed a total of five times as a rookie. And when he gave Jokić a step as the Thunder gained possession, he would mount his horse – which must have been particularly painful for Nikola – and sprint straight to the rim, sometimes with explosive results:

With only one “true” big-baller available due to injuries to Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams, Oklahoma City head coach Mark Daigneault essentially balanced Holmgren's minutes with Jokić's during the Nuggets' offense was the most overwhelming in the past. The Thunder scored a microscopic 93.4 points per 100 possessions in Holmgren's minutes — several thousand miles less than the top-five offensive mark the Nuggets posted last season — and outscored Denver by 14.7 points per 100 possessions during that span .

On the way. At altitude. Without the guy they partially imported for this match.

Holmgren's arrival last season provided a nitrous boost to the Thunder's rise in the Western Conference standings, in part because his presence on the sidelines opened the field to the tortuous and devastating Gilgeous-Alexander – who, in case you were wondering, is still decidedly unfair:

But what made Holmgren's performance so exciting on Thursday was how confidently he led the attack to create half-court claustrophobia in Denver – and how that encouraged players like Luguentz Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace to still have life on the Nuggets to make worse ' scorers; how it fanned the flames of doubt that this version of the Nuggets had enough outside shooting (just 7 of 38 from 3-point range) and perimeter talent to compete with the West's best; and how, at least for one night, it disarmed the NBA's most overwhelming offensive weapon in the last half-decade.

“He was relentless tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Holmgren after the game.

Success in the modern NBA depends in large part on space: how much of it you can create and how much of it you can erase. A version of Holmgren that creates and deletes it The effective, The adamantly against it The The strength of resilience can help Oklahoma City not only persevere as Hartenstein heals, but also have the confidence to dream the biggest dreams sports has to offer – All-Star berths, All-NBA selections and NBA -Championships.

In October, after the first of 82, it all still feels very far away. Good thing a 7 foot 6 wingspan can really achieve, Really far.