OKC Thunder won their opening game of the Salt Lake City Summer League, and the victory marked the return of Chet Holmgren! Holmgren impressed everyone with his return, as the Oklahoma City Thunder opened their Summer League season with a 94-85 victory over the Utah Jazz on Monday night. Awesome news!
Holmgren’s comeback was definitely highlighted by his incredible performance, which included him playing 29 minutes, scoring 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting (45 percent true shooting), grabbing nine rebounds, and making four spectacular blocks.
The 7’1 big player further established himself as the rim protector the Thunder needed in order to achieve their elite defensive potential with blocks against Ochai Agbaji, who was selected 14th overall the previous year, and Keyonte George, who was selected 16th overall this year. Holmgren, who hurt his foot during the previous summer and had never played an NBA regular season game before, heard cries of “overrated” from the fans in Utah as he was shooting free throws in the closing minute of the fourth quarter. It’s great to see an incredible basketball player back!
It’s really been competing with myself just to stay in it. I feel like I followed everything to a T, so this was kind of like the reward for that, Holmgren said.
The Thunder were in complete control throughout the whole game, leading by as many as 27 points midway through the third quarter before the Jazz staged a comeback and narrowed the gap to single digits in the fourth and final period.
Other notable efforts for the OKC Thunder include Jaden Shackelford’s 11 points, Jared Butler’s 10 points, and Hunter Maldonado with six points off the bench. At the end of the game, Jaylin Williams had eight points, thirteen rebounds, and two charges drawn. Additionally, Ousmane Dieng contributed four points despite shooting an awful 1 for 11 from the field.
The Thunder will get back into the swing of things on July 5 when they take on the Memphis Grizzlies.