Breaking through the Thunder defense does the same for Charlotte. Granted, their offense is one of the most entertaining in the league. But after completely carving up the league’s best defense on his own court, the entire NBA world was shocked. One of the layers is Chet Holmgren’s non-existent paint protection.
The Oklahoma City Thunder hit rock bottom with a 124-97 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. This was easily their worst loss of the season and perhaps years. A recent mediocre 6-6 run has raised concerns about the death of the defending NBA champion.
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Holmgren scored 15 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists on 5-of-11 shooting. He made 1 of 4 three-pointers and 4 of 6 free throws.
Aside from a few dunks, Holmgren’s scoring ability was ruled out. The Hornets did a good job of making him uncomfortable. Even if he had enough space to hit pull-up jumpers, he couldn’t coach them in an efficient manner that would make him a possible first-time All-Star.
But that’s the least worrying part of what happened. Even with some of the best metrics in the league, the Thunder’s defense has been inconsistent over the past few weeks. Opponents make the Thunder’s livelihood look too easy. A lack of turnover creation is one thing. It’s an entirely different problem when they can’t stop drives to the rim and leave shooters wide open from deep.
“You have to approach it with the proper gravity. You can’t just brush it off and wipe the film off and say, ‘Move on to the next one.’ But you also can’t overreact and let the emotion of losing pull you in the wrong direction, and no one likes losing,” Holmgren said. “You have to be objective about what it is. See what we can do better. Look at the nature of the game. “
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The Thunder’s rebounding woes also continue. You can definitely feel Isaiah Hartenstein’s absence growing with each game. Their team rebounding rating was -19. Even with their excellent first shot defense, Charlotte would grab a frustrating offensive rebound and make a second chance shot.
Holmgren has never been a rebounding machine. Without Hartenstein, you start to see this spread to other players on the roster. It’s just another example in a long list of examples where — despite their strong record and net ratings — the atmosphere seems a bit sour for the Thunder. The board always tells the truth. For them to be destroyed like they have been the past two games is a major red flag.
“You can try to chalk it up to whatever factors you want. Obviously, Hart’s been big for us. Everybody knows he’s a monster on the boards. He’s been big for us in that department when he’s been with us. I can’t wait to get him back. He’s doing everything he needs to do to take care of himself and play with us,” Holmgren said. “But at the end of the day, it’s not about chalking it up to this or that. It’s more about doing better in that area and getting it done. It’s not a marginal number or the ball bouncing the wrong way. I’m just going to look in the mirror and do better in that area. We, as a team, we have to do better in that area.”
This article originally appeared in OKC Thunder Wire: Chet Holmgren vows rebounding improvement after OKC loss to Hornets