OKC Thunder pulls away from Jazz as Chet Holmgren scores game-high 35 points
Taylor Hendricks will have nightmares.
In them there won’t be any freaky clowns, any bottomless pits. No chainsaws or lofty ledges. He’ll see a giant — don’t think Paul Bunyon, think more like the creatures that starred in 1979’s Alien, only with more finesse and a beard.
Chet Holmgren’s Wednesday performance, a 35-point, 14-rebound outburst as forceful as his poster slam on Hendricks, helped the Thunder pull away against the Jazz in a 119-107 win. And it might haunt Hendricks longer than it should.
Well before the 7-foot-1 rookie’s late rampage materialized, he stunned the Paycom Center crowd (and Hendricks) with a poster that’ll probably be recycled through the end of his career.
The Jazz was crossmatched on an early third-quarter fastbreak. With some miscommunication, Holmgren was left with a runway and a crease. Hendricks hoped to eliminate the lane and his fellow rookie’s shot. But Holmgren’s arm was still reaching back after the apex of Hendricks’ contest. It was game over.
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Holmgren punched a vicious, two-hand slam for a moment that felt longer than it was. His length reached further, his body occupied the air for seconds. He turned away from his victim to raise the roof. Then he proceeded to wreak enough havoc that his teammates couldn’t even decipher which dunks they were being questioned about.
“Oh, yeah, that was tough,” Jalen Williams recalled afterward. “That was probably his best dunk.”
He had his pick.
His own lob to Holmgren, which became an and-1 alley-oop finish over Walker Kessler, was close. An exclamation point of a late fastbreak dunk comes to mind. He patiently awaited Utah’s antsy interior defense to pound the ball and raise up for a two-hander just over a minute before Hendricks’ basketball baptism. Talen Horton-Tucker fouled him on another slam in the fourth.
When an undermanned but still creative and energized Jazz offense caught the Thunder sleeping, OKC needed separation. A door stop, a presence that would do more than coexist with that of Collin Sexton, who acted like a dose of caffeine en route to 25 points and seven assists.
With Utah on OKC’s heels, Holmgren seemingly always had the response. In the game’s opening minutes, Holmgren was getting downhill and to the free throw line. The Jazz decided Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wouldn’t beat it. Holmgren or anyone else would have to. The slender rookie agreed.
Holmgren’s dominance reached a point where he toyed with defenders. He faked passes from deep and drove into drawn fouls. He teetered between force and finesse, horrifying finishes and hilariously astounding skill.
His rim protection was infinite. He scored 18 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter. Holmgren has repeatedly spoken about acting on what a game gives him. On not stepping outside of himself, instead making simple reads and dishing out what the Thunder needs.
On Wednesday, he chose to live in the air.
“People don’t usually use me and hang time in the same sentence,” Holmgren said.
Defenders like Hendricks might not want to use Holmgren’s name at all for a while.
A game-winning sequence
The Thunder rode on the back of Holmgren’s career game. It followed behind every stunning Williams finish. Each one of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s predictable 31 points.
But a single two-minute sequence freed it from the tug-of-war it played with the Jazz for much of Wednesday.
Up four, just over a minute into the fourth quarter, Aaron Wiggins hit the first of his 3-pointers. A minute later, Wiggins miraculously corralled a long rebound on a THT miss. He kicked it ahead to Lu Dort, who finished a breakaway slam. Then, as if Wiggins hadn’t done enough, he followed a Holmgren slam with yet another backbreaking 3.
The shot gave the Thunder an 11-point lead. The Jazz hardly stood a chance once it fell.
“It’s hard to run on makes,” Williams said. “I think we just collectively got a couple big stops … from there, (the Jazz) are kind of on their heels. Offensively, we’re in a flow. It just goes down from there.”
Holmgren’s force
When Holmgren faced the media following the team’s West Coast trip at the beginning of March, he appeared straight out of a Rocky scene.
Cuts and bruises and black eyes. Battle scars that all rested upon his face after a week of brutal blows from opposing bigs. For whatever reason, Holmgren has seemingly taken more beatings (particularly above the neck) than plenty of his fellow big men.
Does that contact concern OKC coach Mark Daigneault?
“In the head, yeah,” Daigneault said after a night of Holmgren and-1s. “… Other than that, he’s a pretty tough guy. He eats the punches.”
Holmgren will admit as much himself. As a defensive anchor, he’s involved in so many actions. Up high, down low. Trying to block every shot that makes sense, trying to alter any others within his reach. Maybe fists fly toward his face like heat-seeking missiles.
That’s just the price of doing business.
“His nose is in every play, literally,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
With so much contact, so many obstacles between him and the rim, Holmgren has to find the balance between finesse and force. Surely he isn’t as buff as prime Dwight Howard, able to shift defenders with the swing of a bicep. And surely he isn’t so into finesse that he’s too soft for the game.
It'll be an ongoing battle for Holmgren, who'll gradually add muscle while never intending to lose any touch or skill. Wednesday saw a good balance.
“You always wanna try and play with force,” Holmgren said, “but not necessarily let it get into a wrestling match, where I'm usually not the bigger or heavier guy.”
NBA playoff race
Here's how the Western Conference race for the top seed stands on Wednesday night:
Thunder: 48-20
Nuggets: 48-21
Timberwolves: 47-22
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Chet Holmgren scores game-high 35 points as OKC Thunder beat Jazz
