What Chet Holmgren said after NBA Finals Game 2 win

Following a disastrous end to Game 1, Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder kept the door slammed shut on the Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals Thursday night.

The former Gonzaga standout bounced back from a quiet outing, finishing with 15 points, six rebounds, one assist and one block while shooting 6-of-11 from the field, including 1-of-3 from 3-point land.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had himself an MVP-caliber night (34 points, eight assists, four steals) as OKC cruised to a 123-107 victory.

Here's what Holmgren told NBA TV after the win.

On his mentality in the first quarter "My point of emphasis was really just come out and compete, worry about all the things that matter toward winning and let everything else take care of itself.

I didn't want to put too much focus on on, you know, shots, this and that, because if they don't go down early, that can kind of take you out of your game and feel like I let that happen in Game 1, so I had to correct that in Game 2." On what he was thinking about in between Game 1 and Game 2 "Man, I didn't sleep very well.

But I was just thinking about gratitude and how grateful I am to be here.

If anybody can speak on it not being promised or guaranteed I can speak on that.

I know I had a bad Game 1; still feel like I could be better after this game too.

"And that's getting back at watching the film, seeing where I can do that to get ready for the next games.

But I just thought about where I could do better and just thought about coming out and competing hard." On his involvement in the offense "It comes down to understanding that I like to look at myself as a winner.

Everybody's a winner until it's inconvenient.

'Can't shoot this shot anymore, can't shoot as many shots, can't dribble as much as you want' it's not about that.

To me, at the end of the day, it's about winning, especially going through some of the stuff I've been through, and how good our team is as well." "It's not about coming back and trying to force my will on what I want to do out there.

At the end of the day, it's about figuring out how we can win and trust in that over time, things build out.

As I continue to work on my game, as I get better at things, as the team continues to improve and find different areas to do better, but at the end of the day, winning is at the forefront." On being aware of matchups "At the end of the day, whether you're on offense or defense, you got to know who you're guarding at that point in time, especially against a team like this, you get cross-matched in transition.

You got to know what they're trying to do on both ends, how certain players close out; slower players will usually close short, try to gap the drive and get a late contest on the 3 some of the quicker players will try to close out quicker, but they're usually shorter, so you got to think shoot over the top." "There's so many things that the average fan wouldn't think about that's going on out there, but you got to be able to kind of figure all that out on the fly.".

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