Nobody in the NBA will play a more important season opener than Chet Holmgren.
Heading into Oklahoma City’s season-opening matchup with San Antonio, Holmgren was the butt of every joke, and rightfully so. He was embarrassed by the Spurs and Victor Wembanyama in the Western Conference Finals, including a disastrous Game 7 in which he had only two shot attempts. Needless to say, Holmgren needed to make a statement in OKC’s first game — and he did.
In a 116-104 Thunder win over the Spurs, Holmgren scored 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had four blocks. Perhaps most importantly, Holmgren was the primary defender on Wembanyama, who went 1-of-13 from the field and got nothing on Holmgren for the entire night.
Based on stats alone, Holmgren had a pedestrian showing. What is so impressive about 14 points and seven rebounds? It was about how he did it more than what he did statistically. The fear of Wembanyama that paralyzed Holmgren’s play in last season’s WCF vanished in this game. On one of OKC’s first possessions of the game, he went right at Wemby and converted a layup right over the top of him.
Holmgren’s on-court performance was an issue against the Spurs in last season’s playoffs, but his mentality worried most OKC fans far more than his lack of production. Players have bad series, especially against defensive unicorns as intimidating as Wembanyama, but rarely is a mental battle so lopsided between two All-NBA players.
Had Holmgren come out after an offseason of being crushed, belittled and dismissed by fans, podcasters and former players alike, that one game would’ve defined his season. If he couldn’t show up in that setting, with all the motivation in the world, and hold his own, he clearly lost the mental battle.
Now, OKC fans won’t have to worry about that until the playoffs. Holmgren matched Wemby defensively, even rejecting his arch-nemesis at the rim on one of his attempts and serving as an elite deterrent for any other Spur.
Holmgren’s willingness to be the primary defender on Wemby seems to have been intentional as well. During the playoffs, OKC avoided that situation whenever possible. Typically, it was Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso or Jaylin Williams defending Wembanyama. In this game, Holmgren took that challenge upon himself and held Wembanyama to 7% shooting from the field.
Putting too much into any one game, especially during the regular season, is almost always foolish. That said, few games that happen during the normal 82 will mean more for a team or player, both in terms of getting a win over a hated rival and for setting the tone for a matchup that seemed to be on the verge of becoming a lost cause for the Thunder.
Holmgren will have to carry this performance into OKC’s next matchup with the Spurs, and then again in the seemingly inevitable WCF rematch, but this was as good of a start as Holmgren, the Thunder, or its fans could’ve reasonably wished for.
