For six minutes, you could see exactly why the Thunder felt like they had to back the Brinks truck for Isaiah Hartenstein this summer… and why his absence at the start of the season with a broken bone in his left hand seemed particularly detrimental to Oklahoma City vs. a The Denver Nuggets team has spent the entire season dueling for the No. 1 seed in the West.
It’s not exactly surprising when Nikola Jokić gets where he wants when he wants to do what he wants; that’s kind of like a three-time Most Valuable Players Doing. But as he merrily strolled through the visiting Thunder early Thursday — six points, three assists, two rebounds, a block and a steal in the top half of the first quarter, completely controlling the game — it was like you could see the boundary of the pre-existing structure of Oklahoma City.
Yes, playing the super-skilled Chet Holmgren as your full-time center offers a lot of advantages for a Thunder offense that wants to play five-out as much as possible. But relying on a 2-meter bundle of bamboo stalks to build up, block and knock down a huge, tearing monster like Jokić all by himself – instead of teaming up with another, heavier 2-meter-long tree in Hartenstein in the Length on the ball with more length behind coverage that the Timberwolves deployed so well in the 2024 playoffs – seemed like a recipe for being pushed inside, giving up offensive rebounds and generally being incapable to slow down a Denver offense that was meant to pulverize.
And then the game continued and it became clear that no matter how quiet it is kept, bamboo is a lot stronger than it seems.
TNT color commentator Stan Van Gundy said it several times Thursday night, but only because it bears repeating: In a match featuring the top two finishers in the 2023-24 MVP voting, winner Jokić and runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, it was it Holmgren , who was just entering his second season, and who often looked like the best player on the floor. After that shaky early start, Holmgren shined, finishing with 25 points, 14 rebounds and a career-high five assists in 36 minutes in a 102-87 Thunder win — an impressive, emphatic performance that, for most of the second half, felt not even as close as that final margin.
The 22-year-old persevered during Jokić’s early bulldozing and promised to do his job early – trying to get low and push the bigger man away from the basket so he would catch the ball further from the rim, and battling with tooth and bone. nail to deflect incoming passes into the post or at least ensure Jokić didn’t get a clean catch. He passed the shoulder check and showed impressive core strength to stay balanced, allowing him to use his prodigious 7-foot-6 wingspan to keep hitting high shots even after giving up a step:
Holmgren served as the primary matchup on Jokić And the last line of defense all night, and – with plenty of help from the Thunder’s cadre of elite offensive threats – he was dominant. He grabbed 10 defensive rebounds and knocked down a few more, several of which limited Denver to one shot during the 18-2 third-quarter run that OKC blew open the game. He finished with a game-high 11 contested shots and two deflections to go with four blocks and two steals; Denver shot just 6-of-18 while defending the shooter, including a 5-of-11 (45.5%) mark at the rim, according to Second Spectrum.
Holmgren also made his presence felt at the other end, utilizing the threat of his shooting — though he missed all five 3-pointers he took on Thursday, essentially the only thing he didn’t excel at in the opener — and his speed advantage. to attack closeouts and move to his midrange pull-up. He rolled hard to the basket off the pick-and-roll, using his length and touch to complete the contact.
He kept Oklahoma City’s drive-and-kick machine moving, facing up, applying downhill pressure to get defensive help before spraying the ball to teammates; he finished with five assists, a total he only surpassed five times as a rookie. And when he took a step on Jokić when the Thunder gained possession, he mounted his horse – which must have been particularly painful for Nikola – and sprinted hard straight to the rim, sometimes with explosive results:
With only one “real” big available because Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams were sidelined with injuries, Oklahoma City head coach Mark Daigneault matched Holmgren’s minutes with Jokić’s, the period when the Nuggets offense was historically at its most overwhelming. The Thunder allowed a microscopic 93.4 points per 100 possessions in Holmgren’s minutes — several thousand miles below the top-five offensive mark the Nuggets produced last season — and outscored Denver by 14.7 points per 100 in that span .
On the road. At height. Without the man 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 of the way his presence on the edge opened up the floor for the twisty and devastating Gilgeous-Alexander – who, for the in case you’re wondering, it’s still completely unfair:
What made Holmgren’s performance so exciting on Thursday, however, was how confidently he led the charge to make Denver feel half-court claustrophobic – how that encouraged the likes of Luguentz Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace to make life even more miserable on the Nuggets. ‘scorers; how it fanned the flames of doubt that this version of the Nuggets has enough outside shooting (just 7-for-38 from three-point range) and talent on the perimeter to match up against the West’s best; and how, at least for one night, it disarmed the most consistently overwhelming offensive weapon in the NBA over the past five years.
“He was ruthless tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Holmgren after the game.
A big part of success in the modern NBA comes down to space: how much of it you can create, and how much of it you can erase. A version of Holmgren who makes it and erases it this effective, this ruthless, against this The level of opposition could help Oklahoma City not only hold on while Hartenstein heals, but also feel confident in dreaming the biggest dreams the sport has to offer: All-Star berths, All-NBA selections and NBA championships.
That all feels very far away in October, after the first of 82. It’s a good thing an 8-foot wingspan can really reach, Real far.
