OKC Thunder's Chet Holmgren Says He Has 'No Hard Minute Restriction' After Injury

For months, the Oklahoma City Thunder operated as one of the best teams in the NBA, and were doing so with an asterisk.

OKC was without one of its top players for most of the season, making its impressive start even more unlikely. Still, Mark Daigneault's team was able to not only stay afloat, but maintain its dominance without Chet Holmgren.

Now, Holmgren has returned, and the team's ceiling is even higher as the talented big man works to ingrain himself back in the Thunder's game flow. While some players have to deal with being on a minutes restiction while working their way back from injury, Holmgren said on Monday night that he does not have that concern.

"I mean, there's no hard minute restriction," Holmgren said. "But, I think that was just how the game went tonight. I got 25 minutes out there and then the game was over."

In his 25 minutes on the floor, Holmgren logged 12 points, six rebounds, five blocks and a steal, going 4-of-10 from the field and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc.

In his first game back from injury, Holmgren finished with four points, five rebounds, one assist, four blocks and two steals in 22 minutes of action. The Thunder won both games by double digits, improving the team's record to 43-9 on the season.

The Thunder have won an NBA-best 43 games despite shuffling the team's lineup throughout the year to deal with injuries suffered by Holmgren, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, among others. With Hartenstein and Holmgren both dealing with injuries at different points this season, the team hasn't been able to utilize some of the lineups that observers imagined when the team signed Hartenstein.

While the two haven't had the opportunity to play alongside each other much yet, Holmgren said that he and Hartenstein will continue to improve their chemistry.

"I mean, it's pretty amazing that we've been able to have guys go down and come back and lineups change, and it seems like we have a different starting five every single game," Holmgren said. "And even with all that happening, it doesn't seem like we're losing any continuity out there, any chemistry. It's almost like whoever goes out there we're all on the same page and things are rolling. I definitely think that was a little different last game, just because we're more used to have no bigs than double bigs. So there was definitely a learning curve there. It was better tonight. We're still continuing to, kind of, iron out some wrinkles. Figure out what works, what doesn't work. We're going to continue to do that."

Want to join the discussion? Like Thunder on SI on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Thunder news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.