Before the season, everyone knew that Chet Holmgren was special defensively.
His rookie year was second only to Victor Wembenyama in terms of total blocks. His defensive impact was clear to anyone who watched, but his offense was lagging behind. He would often drive in off the dribble and fall, or lose the ball.
This year, it’s different. Through two games, Holmgren is averaging 23 points per game despite a cold spell from three. His ball handling is clearly improved and his midrange jumper looks much more natural.
Holmgren’s 21 points and 16 rebounds helped the Oklahoma City Thunder to a dominant win over the Chicago Bulls. The game ended at 114-95, but the score couldn’t have possibly done justice to the overwhelming nature of OKC’s win over the outmatched Bulls.
Aiding Holmgren was the usual suspects of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams, who both crossed the 20-point mark despite playing sparingly in the fourth quarter.
The game flipped in the second quarter when OKC went on a 22-3 run to end the first half. Holmgren and Williams took a while to settle in, so Gilgeous-Alexander picked up the slack to start. Gilgeous-Alexander had 17 points in the first half and fueled the run that would be the nail in the coffin of the Chicago Bulls.
It was in the second half that Holmgren began to dominate and as soon as he left the court, Williams took charge. It was an avalanche of talent for the Thunder and the Bulls, who are in the beginning stages of a rebuild, never really looked competitive after the 22-3 run.
Former OKC lottery pick Josh Giddey put up a solid 14-7-4, but it wasn’t enough for Chicago to come within 15 points after the second quarter.
Holmgren and the rest of OKC’s big three showed up but the rest of the Thunder were M.I.A, at least on the offensive end. Nobody outside of the Holmgren, Gilgeous-Alexander scored more than nine points and the Thunder shot a pitiful 20% from three as a team.
It speaks to the dominance of this OKC team that it has yet to play anywhere near its best on offense and it still has two 15+ point wins. However, as OKC gets deeper into the season, the outside shooting will have to revert back to last year’s form if it wants to accomplish the ultimate goal of winning an NBA championship.
That being said, the outside shot didn’t matter tonight because of Holmgren and the rest of OKC’s stars. With the home opener against Atlanta on the slate on Sunday, the Thunder should enjoy this one, but quickly fix the few nit-picky issues that have popped up over the first two games.
