OKC Thunder Not Worried About Chet Holmgren's Game 1 Woes

The Oklahoma City Thunder's series-opening loss to the Denver Nuggets was anything but Chet Holmgren's proudest night.

Although the 23-year-old probably shouldn't have been in the position he was in the first place — thanks to some questionable foul management down the stretch — Holmgren was expected to deliver in crunch time. Up 119-119 wiht 9.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, a foul by Russell Westbrook sent him up to the charity stripe.

To the dismay of the Oklahoma City crowd, Holmgren missed both of his free-throw attempts. As the second shot clanked off the rim, Denver worked the ball up the court to an open Aaron Gordon behind the 3-point line. A shot that few could replicate — fell right through the net.

Game 1 ended in abrupt disappointment for the Thunder. Holmgren couldn't have been satisfied with the ending — nor could the team. Despite that, it backed up its star big man once the smoke cleared.

“Just gotta move on," Luguentz Dort said on Holmgren's missed free throws. "Chet has done a lot of stuff for us in that game to be able to be there.”

Dort is right in his assessment. While not Holmgren's strongest performance, his 12 points, six rebounds and four blocks did help a great deal in pushing Oklahoma City in the driver's seat for most of the game.

One would expect that Holmgren's offensive production will increase as the series progresses, and his defense will need to step up to manage Nikola Jokic as much as possible. One blunder isn't going to derail his confidence entirely — he's overcome far more difficult situations before.

“He’s the last guy I’m worried about as a competitor — the last guy," head coach Mark Daigneault said on Holmgren. "From the way he handled the adversity of the injuries and having to work his way back from that … he got back way earlier this year. He got back in the earliest time he possibly could’ve while being safe.”

The Thunder will return to Paycom Center at 8:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday with the same winning motivation. It might've been a frustrating start to the second round, but Oklahoma City will try to avoid the Game 1 woes from continuing on.

Ask anyone on the Thunder if Holmgren will bounce back — and they'll probably give an emphatic yes.