It’s gonna take a lot of carbs for Chet Holmgren to make the weigh-in for his bout with Nikola Jokic this round.
Not like Holmgren is trying anyway, #bodypositive in his wiry frame. His length is his strength. And as far as muscle goes, perhaps no one in the NBA has the exact qualifications to push Jokic around.
All of which leaves the Thunder and its center rotation with its Game 1 dilemma. Jokic is the Rubik’s sphere, rotund and requiring infinite moves to solve. In Jokic’s case, there isn’t — at least to this point — any definite solution.
The Nuggets star finished with 42 points, 22 rebounds and six assists in Denver’s 121-119 Monday night upset. Eighteen of those points came in the final quarter while he danced around his final foul.
All the while, Holmgren and fellow center Isaiah Hartenstein racked up five fouls apiece, alternating for each other while trying to keep themselves available. Hartenstein is OKC’s best bet at going chest to chest, bicep for bicep. At leveling Jokic from a floored position like two bulls locking horns.
Holmgren, one of the league’s most promising rim protectors, is for every other alternative. Jokic’s physique makes his shot selection seem circus-like, an unlikely combination of touch and finesse embedded in his forceful trips to the cup. Holmgren’s yardstick arms are meant to obstruct Jokic’s line of sight; it’s proved difficult to obstruct 40/40 vision.
But to this point, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault remains confident in his deployment of tactics and personnel against Jokic.
“He’s a tough cover for anybody,” coach Mark Daigneault said of Jokic on Tuesday. “He requires a lot of energy. He’s a great player.
“(Holmgren’s) length can be effective on him. Obviously, it’s a length-vs.-strength battle, but we feel pretty good about that one. We feel pretty good about (Hartenstein), and we had guards on him at different times as well, and we feel pretty good about that.”
Holmgren licks his chops at the challenge. In his return from injury in February, he was lunging from block to block to meet explosive Raptors forward Scottie Barnes above the rim. If fear ever crept into his conscience, he says, he’d leave the game for good.
But the battle with Jokic transcends ability. Or emotion. Jokic’s power overrides his slow steps, a tougher trek to track for defenders. The game between the lines on Monday was Holmgren remaining as prideful a defender while not being removed from the game for it.
“You can’t worry so much about fouling that you just kind of let him walk around wherever he wants and do whatever he wants,” Holmgren told The Oklahoman on Monday night. “Obviously, I’m trying not to foul. I had a couple fouls I could clean up. Some of them you have to live with just playing physical out there.”
Among the plays that possibly swung Oklahoma City’s late erosion was a sequence that coach Mark Daigneault hoped he could challenge. With 5:37 to play, Holmgren rose for a transition slam that would’ve put the Thunder up 10. Daigneault wanted to review for contact on Holmgren’s arm by way of Jokic, but it was ruled basket interference and not out of bounds — deemed not reviewable by the officiating crew.
It would’ve been Jokic’s disqualifying foul.
Holmgren was the one forced to absorb fleshy elbows and forceful journeys to the rim. Did he sense that Jokic should’ve picked up a sixth foul?
“I’m not going to sit here and even think about that,” Holmgren said. “I got other aspects from the game tonight that I got to improve. … I don’t have time to waste thinking about that.”
Their duel alone will continue to resemble a sea lion’s clash with a needlefish. The deployment of Alex Caruso, who accurately timed his digs and doubles, was helpful. Effective. But Caruso only played 26 minutes (to Jokic’s 42), and too much consistency in his defensive attention could be tracked and abused by as cerebral a player as Jokic.
The Thunder’s 7-foot-1 sophomore — and its No. 1 rated regular season defense — will continue searching for a neutralizer. Holmgren is willing to do anything but stand and watch.
“My mindset, no matter the outcome, good or bad, pretty or ugly, is always accountability and improvement,” Holmgren said. “I just have to look at myself and be better in those situations. Look at the film, and then some of it just comes down to making the play. (With) the game of basketball, you can be in the right spot at the right time. If you don’t make the play, you’re gonna watch the play be made.”
Joel Lorenzi covers the Thunder and NBA for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joel? He can be reached at jlorenzi@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @joelxlorenzi. Support Joel’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
