Chet Holmgren and the Thunder’s smaller depth engulf Timberwolves in Game 1 win

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OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder won Game 1 by 26 points, but only led by seven when the clock ticked below 11 minutes in the fourth quarter. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the presumed MVP, spent the first three minutes on the bench. Julius Randle, the hottest first-half player in the building, was on the floor.

If ever there was a time for the Minnesota Timberwolves to threaten late in the Western Conference finals opener, this felt like the pivotal stretch to attack.

Among this ascending Thunder core, third-year center Chet Holmgren is the highest draft pick. He went second overall in 2022, a big ticket item, but has missed 132 combined games in his three seasons, forcing Holmgren to reform as a high-value role player and jump on the runaway 68-win train while in motion.

“It’s gone under the radar a little bit how hard it is to be a guy, then sit out for a couple months and have to integrate yourself into a team that has the best record in the NBA and not step on nobody’s toes, but also sticking to yourself,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s a hard position to be in. The way he’s handled it has been special. I don’t know if he gets enough credit.”

When Gilgeous-Alexander leaves the floor, the Thunder’s offense doesn’t run through Holmgren. He is among the league’s best rim protectors, but he’s mostly a spacer and second-side pump-and-drive threat unless he really has it going.

In the first three quarters, Gilgeous-Alexander took 21 shots and 11 free throws. Jalen Williams, the second All-Star drafted 10 picks after Holmgren in the same draft, had 15 shots. Holmgren had only taken four — fourth-most on the team, which isn’t an abnormal night.

But a level of raw and untapped skill resides within Holmgren, even in a non-featured role. At the pivot point of Game 1, while serving as a spacer in the right corner, Holmgren drilled a catch-and-shoot 3 when Naz Reid wandered too far off of him and then perfectly timed a baseline cut for a dunk.

“I was out there stinking it up in the first half,” Holmgren said. “The game’s not gonna reward you for that. I feel like I turned up the intensity, played harder, was able to find a little more gas in the tank and really exert that.”

Here are both buckets. It put the Thunder back up 11. Gilgeous-Alexander entered at the next whistle and guided the Thunder home.

Both of those early fourth-quarter Holmgren makes were assisted by second-year guard Cason Wallace, who finished the night with a career-high seven assists in a playoff career-high 33 minutes.

Wallace is another ascending young part of this Thunder machine that can feel a bit underutilized at times because of their wealth of depth options around him. As multiple Thunder players pointed out postgame, Wallace was an effective point guard and table-setter at Kentucky and appears able to toggle up that side of his game when called upon. He was a plus-21 in Game 1.

“I came in the locker room and called him Magic Johnson,” Isaiah Hartenstein said.

Alex Caruso’s upsized defense didn’t dominate the postgame conversation quite like Game 7 after he was used as the adjustment against Nikola Jokić. But it already seems clear that he will be one of Mark Daigneault’s most trusted options on Randle, who has been the most difficult Timberwolves player to contain the last few weeks.

“Like or dislike, it’s my job,” Caruso said of the Randle assignment at Tuesday’s shootaround. “Get stops. Either the game tells me to battle 300-pound guys or get over screens on the perimeter.”

Caruso made all three of his 3s in 22 minutes. Kenrich Williams made both of his in 10 minutes. Those five 3s (on five attempts) were equivalent to the amount of bench 3s the Timberwolves received from Reid, Donte DiVincenzo and Nikeil Alexander-Walker off the bench: 5-of-28 in a dreadful display of supplementary shooting. Reid went 0-of-7. Alexander-Walker went 2-of-9. DiVincenzo went 3-of-12.

Kenrich Williams’ two 3s were a particular surprise because his insertion into the rotation was unforeseen. Williams was out of Daigneault’s rotation for the entirety of the first two rounds of the playoffs.

He hadn’t played in a game since the last night of the regular season.

“He hasn’t played significant minutes in a game since the last game of the regular season,” Daigneault said. “That was five weeks ago.”

The Kenrich Williams wrinkle — and his performance, which Daigneault said “breathed life” into a Thunder team that wobbled through the first half — also might’ve been an early hint about the difficult landscape for centers in this series. Kenrich Williams played over Jaylin Williams, who had been their third big off the bench.

But even more telling: Holmgren was the only of the three high-profile centers in this series to touch the floor in the fourth quarter. Coach Chris Finch and the Timberwolves kept Rudy Gobert on the bench for 12 minutes in the fourth quarter. He only played 21 total. Hartenstein also didn’t see the floor in the fourth. He killed the Timberwolves in the floater range in the first half, but was limited to 19 minutes in a small-ball environment.

“It’s hard to know. These series shift so quickly,” Daigneault said. “Every game is different. Every team is constantly trying to problem solve. Gobert is a huge factor in this series.”

The Timberwolves were outscored by 2 points in Gobert’s 21 minutes and 22 points in the 27 minutes he sat. The Thunder only shot a season-low 21 3s, but relentlessly attacked a Minnesota interior that often went without its best rim protector. OKC had a 54-20 edge in paint points.

That included six paint points from Holmgren in that swing surge to open the fourth quarter. After the baseline cut for a dunk, he had a pick-and-roll dive and dunk and a putback of a Gilgeous-Alexander miss. Holmgren appears to be the center — at least through one game — whose versatile skill set fits a series that is tilting small.

“When he’s the best version of himself, we are the best version of ourselves as a unit,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He affects the game at such a high level.”

(Photo of Chet Holmgren and Anthony Edwards: Alonzo Adams / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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