Charging up a quiet OKC crowd, Chet Holmgren jumped up with Christian Braun. Almost disgusted at his bravado to go up for a poster, the All-NBA talent completely swallowed up his dunk attempt in a vicious block. Veins popped out of his neck as he screamed in celebration. The adrenaline rush was through the roof as he continued to play with a newborn confidence.
The Oklahoma City Thunder got over an ugly start on their way to a 96-84 win over the Denver Nuggets. Quite the way to start the 2026-27 regular season with two convincing wins over your assumed top threats in the West.
Holmgren finished with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting, 17 rebounds and two assists. He shot 0-of-1 from 3 and went 2-of-2 on free throws. He also had four blocks.
I don't know
what Holmgren did over the summer to get over his disastrous 2026 Western Conference Finals, but it's clearly worked. The early returns were more than anything his biggest optimist could've hoped for. He's outplayed Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic — two of the NBA's best three players. Not just that, but he's just oozing confidence right now on both ends.
The defense remains impeccable. That was lost over the summer. But Holmgren is one of the two best rim protectors in the league. At worst. He completely junked up Denver's halfcourt offense. Jokic had to rely on pure-talent jumpers to get buckets. Nothing easy happened in the paint.
And then the offense remained simple — but effective. A lot of easy buckets for Holmgren at the rim. The Thunder fed him several alley-oops. That has been a feature of OKC's offense over the years. Especially out in transition after a momentum-shifting stop or turnover.
It's going to take a minute for Holmgren to regain the trust of the NBA world. Specifically, when talking about one of the game's best players. Fair or not, a Game 7 stinker sticks with you for a while. But man, these first two games have been the ultimate sign of encouragement. It feels like he productively took in an offseason of ridicule. The fork-in-the-road moment has netted positive results.
"In the moment, it's just trying to figure out and do what it takes to win. I think I had the best compliment of my life today," Holmgren said. "Kenny Hustle said he's never seen me play harder. I don't know if I was just getting to a lot of loose balls or if I was actually playing that hard. But for Kenny Hustle himself to say that, I was honored."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Chet Holmgren outplays another MVP candidate in OKC's win over Nuggets
