OKC Thunder: Chet Holmgren Dominates Celtics on Both Ends

Bouncing back from a tough individual performance and team result against an even more intimidating foe proved necessary for Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder, which gave up a season-worst 140 points to the Denver Nuggets in a 13-point loss on Monday night. After all, the defending champion Boston Celtics in the raucous TD Garden were next on the schedule.

Oklahoma City had not lost two straight games since November. It kept that streak intact with a 118-112 victory over the Celtics on Wednesday.

Holmgren made his mark early and often, securing three layups and three offensive rebounds in the first quarter on his way to 23 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.

Holmgren was also a much more effective shooter than in his prior outing, where he shot 0-for-5 from downtown — the big man converted three catch-and-shoot 3-pointers and swished a mid-range jumper coming off an Isaiah Hartenstein pindown screen.

"(Holmgren was) not happy with how he played the other night," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said postgame. "It was his first back-to-back and he didn't have a great game, and you could tell it bothered him. It's just impressive to see how he steps into a real competitive role tonight and plays really well."

Holmgren shot 8-for-14 from the field despite a handful of blocks from Derrick White and Al Horford. He assisted his frontcourt partner Hartenstein on a turnaround floater and alley-oop lob, winning his 34 minutes by nine points. Holmgren provided assertive offense with or without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (34 points on 20 shots, seven assists) on the court.

"Just trying to think what we want to accomplish as a team," Holmgren said. "If all five of us out there can get on the same page and do that, then I feel like we can make really good plays. The plays on the offensive end that ended up leading to buckets ... a lot of them were off passes or quick attacks."

Daigneault said Holmgren also utilized plenty of range defensively due to the Celtics' open playstyle and Horford being a 3-point threat at the center position. Boston launched a franchise-record 63 triples and made 20.

"(Holmgren) did a lot of switching," Daigneault said. "He was on an island against the best guys on their team on a lot of possessions. ... When he was stuck on (Jayson) Tatum, he was really out of the water against him. Just great growth and improvement in a short period of time."

With All-Star Jalen Williams out, the Thunder started Holmgren next to Gilgeous-Alexander, Cason Wallace, Luguentz Dort and Aaron Wiggins — his first start at center when Hartenstein also plays. Daigneault said playing Holmgren there so much last year has made those lineups reliable for Oklahoma City.

Holmgren's mentality remains focused on the future.

"At the end of the day, it's one of 82," Holmgren said. "Win or loss, we're going to learn from it — come back next game and try to be better than we were today."

Holmgren and the Thunder take on the Detroit Pistons on the road tomorrow at 6 p.m. CST. Detroit is the only team Oklahoma City has not beaten this season.

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