Chet Holmgren goes full Ben Simmons in a Game 7 disappearing act

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did his best on Saturday night, but in the end it was too difficult to overcome that three key players for OKC did not play in Game 7. Jalen Williams was out with a strained hamstring. Ajay Mitchell had a sober calf. And Chet Holmgren caught the Ben Simmons bug.

Yes, Holmgren was down for 33 minutes. He did almost as much during that time as Williams and Mitchell did off the bench in street clothes, scoring four points on two shooting attempts as the Thunder fell short in their bid for their first NBA title since the 2018 Warriors.

It’s the Spurs marching to the finals to face the Knicks after a 111-103 victory in one of the best performances you’ll ever see from a team in Game 7. On the road, against the defending champions, three players aged 22 and under lead the way.

Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper played well in Game 6 to keep San Antonio’s season alive, and they were impressive again in Game 7 with 48 points, 20 boards and 11 assists. Even those numbers don’t do justice to the huge plays each made in the most critical areas of the game. Big bucket after big bucket. Harper and Castle combined for seven offensive rebounds.

This looks like it’s going up big time. Not a single player in Spurs has backed down from the heat of this game for even one second. Holmgren, on the other hand, looked shocked. Normally you don’t want to make that kind of judgment on a guy from afar, but this was too obvious to ignore. The young man wanted nothing to do with Black. He has nothing to do with any pass that came his way. It has nothing to do with time.

I cannot stress enough the two shot attempts. This wasn’t a case of Holmgren trying to make plays and just run to Black all the time, or drive and kick, or do anything productive with the ball. He couldn’t get rid of the thing quickly.

This is what it looks like to catch a pass, look at the guy in front of you, and just say “no thanks” and hot potato it back to where it came from, and then you’re forced to try. something when it comes back to you and you can’t even sit on your feet.

Meanwhile, this is what Wemby was busy doing to Holmgren.

Let’s also be clear: Wemby wasn’t even Holmgren’s main defender in this series. The Spurs put him on wings like Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie while Wemby roamed around as a paint protector (he met Chet all the time as a helper), but still couldn’t find a way to use the size that wasn’t right for him as a seven-footer.

To say that Holmgren was idle on Saturday night would be doing him too much credit. He was basically invisible. Of the four shots he hit, zero came in the second half. Zero! That’s no excuse for a guy who will start a five-year, $239 million contract next season. The guy who was voted to the NBA Third Team this season.

It’s too bad that Holmgren pulled this disappearing act in a game where the popularity was, as mentioned, already without Williams and Mitchell. In a game like this, you need more than one guy to carry the offense, and with those two guys out, SGA needed Holmgren more than ever. It makes you think of this response from SGA after OKC’s Game 4 loss where Holmgren made just three buckets.

That’s what you call saying everything without saying anything. So let’s just say it about SGA: Holmgren needed to improve himself. It’s cool that OKC coach Mark Daigneault did the honorable thing and tried to criticize Holmgren for not showing up in Game 7, but no one is buying that line. It bears repeating, this is a big-contract and All-NBA player. Holmgren averaged 10.7 PPG in this series, down from 17 in the regular season. He was held twice in the single digits. If he wasn’t going to do anything offensively, could he even pull down more than four rebounds in Game 7?

Wembanyama will outscore all of his opponents on most nights, but OKC needed Holmgren to at least pull his weight in this series. The fact that the Thunder made it to Game 7 despite injuries to Mitchell and Williams and Holmgren laying multiple eggs is a credit to their depth, defense, toughness and SGA’s ability to create offense when he isn’t shooting well.

Alex Caruso gave SGA all the help he could get. Jared McCain came out and fired. Cason Wallace was a singer. Lu Dort, who has been terrible throughout the series, will get a pass because there is a lot expected of Holmgren, and rightfully so. If Holmgren has even a half decent game on Saturday night the Thunder will probably go to the finals.

Holmgren will not be the next Ben Simmons. He was impressive all season and played well in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Wemby just scares him to death. It wasn’t just this game or this series, either. In four regular season contests, he averaged 10.7 PPG on 38% shooting against the Spurs.

Holmgren takes this analogy personally. Everyone knows that. Wemby considers him as a little brother. He entered this series wanting to prove himself against Wembanyama. But when he lost confidence, which was almost immediately, he was eliminated from the series.

It will be a problem going forward, because no matter how good Holmgren is against everyone else, Oklahoma City is unlikely to return to another Finals without going through Wemby, at least in some capacity, for the next ten years plus.

That said, the Simmons comp hits. We all remember the Game 7 that came against the Hawks in 2021 when Simmons was afraid to even carry the ball for fear of being fouled and having to shoot free throws. He finally succeeded in an open dance attempt to define the low light of his career. In that game, Simmons took four shots. Holmgren taking two this time felt eerily similar.

It wasn’t the only reason for the thunderstorm, but it was the biggest. No question about it. Before this thread started, I was wondering if Holmgren was representing this war when I was wrote the following:

Holmgren has struggled against Wembanyama and Spurs this season. It was a big reason why San Antonio took four of the five matchups, which I don’t put too much weight on, but it can be discounted going into this series. The Spurs know they can beat the Moon. That’s part of the battle.

OKC’s stats change a bit if Holmgren emerges as the legitimate No. 2 scorer to take the weight off Mitchell and Williams should do that. He has an average of 18.6 PPG in a 60/39/88 split so far, but not the Lakers, in which he averaged 20 PPG with a big show of 24 and 12 in the clincher, or the Suns on the other hand. It’s in the dark. It’s a completely different football game.

Holmgren takes this Wemby analogy very personally. Everyone knows that. He tried to do too much in their regular season matchups, hunting for his buckets without offense. It’s a fine line, because you have to be aggressive. OKC probably can’t win if they don’t win. Especially if William’s hamstring problems return. If Holmgren is played badly by Wemby, OKC will have a steep climb to climb.

Indeed, Holmgren was badly outplayed by Black. And finally, the hill was too steep to climb.