Chet Holmgren Finds Success In Offensive Flow for OKC Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder held on to a 128-126 Game 4 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals on Monday, almost entirely due to its star trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren.

That group had an answer for every single Timberwolves run, never letting the Minnesota lead get above two points in the 48 minutes of Game 4 inside the Target Center.

While Oklahoma City's lead guards Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams were stellar, the second year big man was great in his own right stuffing the stat sheet to the tune of 21 points, seven rebounds, an assist, a steal and a trio of blocks while shooting 64% from the floor and 2-for-4 from beyond the arc in 33 minutes.

After the game, the League's MVP offered high praise to Holmgren, explaining just how impressive it is for the big man to find ways to impact the game without the benefit of designed plays called for him.

"It's crazy because he's out there just running around right now.

We don't really call plays for him.

He rarely gets anything set for him.

He just out there playing on feel and affecting things at a high level, whether it's making his shots, blocking shots, offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding.

He's just a winning player," Thunder Superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander revealed.

That is an impressive feat, to get into such a scoring rhythm and find ways to finish plays with great Improvisation skills from a 7-foot-2 stretch big.

Holmgren went into detail about how he is able to find success in an offense not necessarily designed to get him shots.

"The big thing is just trying to have finger prints on the game.

Understanding that a lot of our set plays are designed through the ball handler and outside of that, we are all just playing off of them.

When you have really good players, that the other team needs to stop, they are going to have to help and recover from somewhere.

Just understanding that we have to make them pay for that," Holmgren explained following Game 4.

"Just try to be aggressive.

Try to make the right play, too.

It's not always score, sometimes it is make the extra pass, sometimes it's find the next action, whatever it is.

Just try to leave finger prints on the game and make winning plays." This tidbit following Game 4 serves as a great reminder of just how young this collective core is.

The Thunder's big three have played a season and a half together.

Yet, sit a game away from the NBA Finals.

This trio will continue to learn how to play together, the Thunder will learn how to leverage them off one another and maximize all parties involved.

While Holmgren, Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams are ready for the moment right now, they are not even at their ceiling yet..

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