Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Forced to Seriously Ponder How to Get Chet Holmgren Involved vs. Spurs in WCF

Chet Holmgren had another quiet game as the Thunder lost to the Spurs on Sunday night, 103–82. The series is now tied at 2-2 with Game 5 coming Tuesday night in Oklahoma City. Holmgren led the Thunder with nine rebounds in Game 4, but scored just 10 points, his second lowest total of the series.

He's now averaging 11.3 points and six rebounds a game against the Spurs, well below his career-highs of 17.1 points and 8.9 rebounds during the regular season and the 20 points and 9.8 rebounds he averaged in a sweep of the Lakers in the previous round.

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Holmgren is only taking eight field goal attempts and 2.3 three-point attempts a game through the first four games of the series. Both of those are below what he averaged in the regular season and the previous two series. You probably wouldn't be surprised to hear he's also shooting a lower percentage from both two and three in this series as well.

After Game 4, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is also struggling from the field, was asked what he could do to get Holmgren more involved. SGA had to ponder the question for a few seconds before he finally answered.

“Chet’s an easy target to find,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “So probably just like find him more in the dunker or when he’s spacing. Just put him in better positions to use his strengths as an offensive talent. I don’t know exactly what that looks like just ‘cause I just got done playing, but watching films we’ll find ways for sure.”

SGA went on to say that Holmgren doesn't care about anything besides winning and he had no doubt that Homlgren would go out and give it his all the rest of the series.

In nine regular season games against the Spurs, Holmgren has averaged 13.2 point points and has shot just 47.6% from the field. That is the third lowest scoring average against any team and his second-worst shooting percentage.

It’s no surprise that his biggest struggles might come against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, but it's also not a great sign for the Thunder going forward. Or at least that’s something you might say if you weren’t willing to consider the fact that no one is probably going to play better against Wembanyama than they do against teams that don't feature a 7'4" center who is dominant on both ends of the floor.

This really isn’t an ideal series for anyone, including the guy who just won back-to-back MVP awards. SGA is shooting 39.2% from the field in this series, which is well below the career-best 55.3% he shot during the regular season and 47.1% he shot in the last series.

This is a tough series for everyone and Chet Holmgren’s struggles probably aren't hurting the Thunder as much as Jalen Williams’s lack of availability. Or the fact that they don’t have Ajay Mitchell right now. This is a typically deep team that is being forced to confront a sudden lack of depth as a result. Losing two rotation players, including a guy who made All-NBA and All-Defensive teams last season, is only making things harder on SGA and Holmgren.

If Gilgeous-Alexander sounds like he’s searching for the answers, that's probably because he is.

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