on his show<\/a>, Kevin O\u2019Connor pointed to exactly that issue as the defining concern.<\/p>\n\u201cWith all the guys the Thunder lost, it just didn\u2019t feel like they had enough sources of creation on the roster,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChet is a top draft pick and a very talented player, but he\u2019s about to become a max-contract player next season. To finish a must-win Game 7 with four points on just two shot attempts, and not be able to create off the dribble at all, is a major issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that\u2019s one of the biggest stories of the entire series. Chet simply couldn\u2019t create offence.\u201d<\/p>\n
That theme carried into broader post-game analysis, with Holmgren\u2019s lack of assertiveness repeatedly highlighted as Oklahoma City\u2019s offence tightened under pressure.<\/p>\n
Against most teams, Holmgren\u2019s length and touch can influence a game without heavy volume. Against Victor Wembanyama and a Spurs defence built to protect the rim and recover quickly, hesitation becomes far more punishing.<\/p>\n
Yahoo Sports NBA writer Tom Haberstroh described the psychological edge San Antonio gained in the matchup, pointing to how Holmgren looked physically and mentally uncomfortable at key moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked terrified of Wemby,\u201d Haberstroh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a play late in the game where he drove into Wembanyama\u2019s chest and Wembanyama just swallowed the play up with a block. There was nothing he could do.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a sensational block at the rim that helped keep them in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t make up for the complete zero he gave them for the rest of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also highlighted a late coaching decision as a sign of how the game was trending.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink about how much it takes for Mark Daigneault to rely on Kenrich Williams over Chet Holmgren down the stretch of a Game 7. That\u2019s exactly what happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout Jalen Williams and without AJ Mitchell, the shot creation and scoring burden falls on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a player with his talent, on his home floor in a Game 7, it\u2019s unacceptable to take only two shots and be completely absent offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the Spurs look like they\u2019ll be dominating the West for a long time, Holmgren simply must improve against Wemby or he\u2019ll become unplayable in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
His rookie max extention will see him paid $US240 million ($A333 million) over the next five seasons.<\/p>\n
But now the loss will see trade talks heat up with suggestions Holmgren could be the centrepiece of a Thunder move for Giannis Antetokounmpo, while Nick Wright also suggested Anthony Davis could be gettable from the Wizards.<\/p>\n
The Holmgren-Wembanyama duel had loomed over the series, with Wembanyama again delivering when it mattered, finishing with 22 points, seven rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block as he claimed Western Conference Finals MVP honours.<\/p>\n
Holmgren was never expected to win that matchup outright, but the gap in influence became part of the story. Too often, possessions ended not with shots but with hesitation, allowing San Antonio to reset and load up on Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n
When Holmgren failed to engage as a scoring threat, Oklahoma City\u2019s offence narrowed into isolation-heavy possessions. Defenders sagged, passing lanes tightened, and the Thunder were left searching for cleaner answers in a half-court game that increasingly played into San Antonio\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
In the end, that absence of pressure was just as damaging as any missed shot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chet Holmgren\u2019s Game 7 line reads like a quiet game on paper, but it sat at the centre of Oklahoma City\u2019s season-ending loss, where the deeper issue was how often the Thunder\u2019s offence stalled when the ball found him. The San Antonio Spurs\u2019 111-103 win today closed out the Western Conference Finals and sent Oklahoma […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-246070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}