Holmgren and Murray matchup in six-point Thunder win
Holmgren hasn't replicated the scoring performance he had in his first game of Summer League, but has proved his versatile skillset in Las Vegas (Courtesy of CNN).
Former Gonzaga big man Chet Holmgren played the role of Swiss army knife on Wednesday evening in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s win against the Sacramento Kings as part of Las Vegas Summer League action. Despite another bolstering performance from Keegan Murray, who’s been on a tear since being taken by the Kings out of Iowa, the Thunder commanded a strong lead throughout the second half and finished on top 86-80.
Holmgren put up a Summer League low for himself with eight points on eight attempts in 26 minutes. Once again however, Holmgren proved his on-court versatility with five steals, five rebounds and three assists.
The Minnesota native looked to be en route to an elite scoring night after giving the Thunder five of the team’s first seven points with a three pointer and then open lane dunk after splitting two defenders in the half court. He attempted three more shots for the rest of the first half, failing to convert on any of them, but also came up with two offensive rebounds and a steal against Murray.
Stopping Murray has been a formula that no team has been able to crack in Summer League given that the fourth overall pick is averaging 21.8 points per game in six outings. He was Holmgren’s assignment whenever the No. 2 overall pick was on the floor and vice versa, and Holmgren struggled to stay in front of Murray defensively. While Murray kept Holmgren shooting volume low Wednesday, Holmgren was nifty in creating space to get teammates open and make moves off the ball to get Oklahoma City’s offense running efficiently.
Holmgren also drew six personal fouls in the game, but a couple of those seemingly looked like fair blocks, which he recorded none, that the referees either called goaltending or a shooting foul.
As the Thunder join the legion of teams to be 2-1 so far in Vegas, their top scorer as a team was Tre Mann with 15 points. West Coast Conference all-first team guard Jalen Williams continues to impress with his off-ball movement and put up 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting, with Eugene Omoruyi dropping 13 points off the bench.
All-rookie second team guard from last season Josh Giddey has apparently been shut down for the rest of Summer League after not logging a single minute in Wednesday’s action.
After dropping 16 points on Andrew Nembhard and the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, USF alumni Frankie Ferrari dropped four points in 32 on Wednesday with a +18 +/- rating.
