What this slumping Thunder standout must do in Game 7

Thursday night's Game 6 was rough for every player on the Oklahoma City Thunder, who lost 108-91 to the Indiana Pacers and face a Game 7 on Sunday night at home (8 p.m. ET, ABC). 

No Thunder player had a worse game than OKC's 23-year-old big man, Chet Holmgren, who finished with four points and six rebounds on 2-for-9 shooting in 24 minutes. No Thunder player played spectacularly  — MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had eight turnovers and only two assists and Jalen Williams had an NBA Finals-record -40 plus/minus. But Holmgren seemed particularly lost, as he has been the majority of the Finals. 

Against Indiana, Holmgren is averaging 11.3 points and nine rebounds. Those are good numbers for a role player, but not so much for the star-in-waiting he's hyped to be. 

Holmgren is in a horrible shooting slump, making 35.3% of his shots from the field and 11.8% from three against the Pacers. He is a career 37.2% three-point shooter and has shown flashes of great finesse and skill on offense, but when the Thunder have needed him the most, he's vanished. 

Holmgren is fully aware of his offensive struggles.

"It's not fun. Nobody is happy right now." he told USA Today "But you can't let the emotions kind of sidetrack you from what we need to do leading up to and during the game coming up,"

Holmgren is right about needing to focus on the game ahead as Oklahoma City must regroup for the winner-take-all Game 7. He must concentrate on the things he does well and things that contribute to winning basketball. 

Holmgren had only played 114 regular-season games before this title run, and while he is an extremely talented prospect with lots of upside, his offensive game is a work in progress. 

While his offense is still in a developmental stage, his defense and rebounding are mostly positives in the postseason. In the Thunder's victories in Games 4 and 5, Holmgren had 15 and 11 boards respectively; in the Game 6 loss, he had only four.

Holmgren has also done a good job protecting the rim this postseason, averaging 1.7 blocks. However, in the Game 6 loss, he didn't have one. He can't let Indiana bully him out of the paint, and when he helps protect the paint and cleans up the glass, his team wins. 

With just one game between the Thunder and an NBA championship, Holmgren should leave the shot creation to SGA and Williams and focus on defense and rebounding. If he can lock down the Pacers high-flying offense and prevent second-chance points, it might be enough to capture the Thunder's first NBA title.