Chet Holmgren Couldn't Come Through For The Thunder When It Mattered Most

The OKC big man was nowhere to be found on the stat sheet on Saturday night.

May 30, 2026; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren (7) drives against San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) in the fourth quarter during game seven of the western conference finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

The Thunder’s young star just didn’t show up to play. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s season is officially over. Their run for their second consecutive championship was cut short on Saturday night, as they fell to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals 111-103. 

As heartbreaking a loss as it was, Oklahoma City didn’t have key pieces show up ready to play that it needed to in order to win. Of course, the Thunder would have loved to have both Ajay Mitchell and Jalen Williams healthy to aid in this battle, but even Thunder players who were present on the hardwood failed to make an impact. 

One player in particular who just didn’t perform as well as he needed to was Chet Holmgren. In the biggest game of the year, and a game where the Thunder needed Holmgren to come up big, he crumbled under the pressure. In 33 minutes of play, he would only manage to score four points and grab four rebounds. 

It wasn’t just that Holmgren had a bad night; it almost seemed as if he didn’t want it bad enough. He only took two shots in the entire game, and not a single shot in the second half. There seemed to be multiple instances where Holmgren had an open shot or had room to work, yet he chose to give the ball up. 

Yes, he had the Defensive Player of the Year, Victor Wembanyama, guarding him for most of the game, but it seemed as if Holmgren played scared and defeated from the jump, not even testing the Spurs' big man. 

Holmgren had a rough series, to say the least, as he averaged just over 10 points per game for the Thunder. This was not what the Thunder had expected from the third-year big man, as he had the best regular season of his career, averaging 17.1 points. However, at the end of the day, Holmgren couldn’t come through when OKC desperately needed him, and they paid the price for it. 

Social media will tell you that because of this its time to move on from Holmgren and find something else, which is totally false. Holmgren is still developing rapidly and is progressing year by year. You can expect that after a postseason that fell short of his and his team’s expectations, he will be working harder than ever before to improve. 

Yes, it might have seemed like he had an issue facing the Spurs this year, but that’s just this year. Moving on from the player who is increasing his scoring total year after year, and who just finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, would seem a little premature. Holmgren wasn’t the player OKC needed him to be in Game 7, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be in the future.