Chet Holmgren was a key contributor in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 136-104 road win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night, as the American center had 28 points, eight rebounds, two blocks, and four three-pointers on 11-for-16 shooting from the field.
Just like what he did after the Houston Rockets game recently, Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made sure to give Holmgren his flowers by making an All-Star pitch for his big man.
“Whatever you need from him, he goes out there, and he attacks it. He’s a competitor. He takes advantage of every opportunity he gets. That’s why he’ll be an All-Star this year,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Holmgren via Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman.
“The thing he did tonight that he does every night is he impacts the final score just with his overall floor game, his defense, his screening and rolling on offense, and the space he creates for us. We won his minutes by a huge margin,” head coach Mark Daigneault added. “That’s pretty much a theme with him. We’ve had a lot of success to this point. He’s been right in the middle of it, and it’s because of his two-end impact every single night.”
Oklahoma City Thunder News: Mark Daigneault praises the team’s resilience amid missing key players
The Oklahoma City Thunder were already without Jalen Williams due to a strained hamstring, and the team also lost Jaylin Williams (back) and Alex Caruso (groin) against the Cleveland Cavaliers. During the postgame presser, head coach Mark Daigneault raved about his players’ resilience.
“The thing that I love about this team is we have a group of guys who see those setbacks as a challenge. And that became our challenge tonight with only Chet in the frontcourt. We played small a lot of minutes. K-Rich did a great job, but the whole team did a great job… The guys really scrapped and fought,” Daigneault explained.
The defending NBA champions will wrap up their four-game road trip with a visit to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday before they return home to host the Indiana Pacers on Friday evening.
