A Dejected Chet Holmgren Made One Thing Clear About Battling Victor Wembanyama After Spurs Eliminate Thunder

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A Dejected Chet Holmgren Made One Thing Clear About Battling Victor Wembanyama After Spurs Eliminate Thunder

The Spurs knocked out the defending champion Thunder in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals on Saturday night in a thrilling back-and-forth matchup in which Victor Wembanyama rose to the occasion. Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren did not.

Holmgren got posterized by Wembanyama early in the first quarter of the game, and unfortunately for the Thunder star, things didn’t get much better from there. While his teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander carried OKC with 35 points, Holmgren finished with a mere four points on 1-of-2 shooting from the field; he also recorded four rebounds, two steals and two blocks. With Jalen Williams sitting out due to a hamstring injury, the Thunder needed someone else to step up on the scoring front and that wasn’t Holmgren, who didn’t attempt a single shot in the second half.

Following his bleak performance, Holmgren spoke with reporters in the locker room about the Thunder’s playoff elimination and was asked about whether he was trying not to make the matchup about him and Wembanyama.

Thunder center Chet Holmgren drives against Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama in the fourth quarter of Game 7. | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

“At the end of the day, it’s always about us trying to win a basketball game. Us as a collective, the Thunder team trying to win the basketball game. And that’s what’s it’s always going to be,” Holmgren said.

Holmgren gave the Spurs their flowers for their well-deserved win and admitted his team wasn’t at its best in the win-or-go-home showdown.

“Down the stretch we gave ourselves a chance, we fought really hard, we just weren’t able to put enough plays together to make it happen. A couple of our shots didn’t go down. … We just weren’t able to convert,” said Holmgren. “I’m going to have to go back and watch the tape, but I feel like we were able to get to a lot of really good spots, and we moved the ball well … we just weren’t able to convert enough of them into points.”

Chet Holmgren Post Game pic.twitter.com/9pJvoJLsOM

— Andrew Schlecht (@AndrewKSchlecht) May 31, 2026

How Chet Holmgren performed in Thunder’s Game 7 loss to the Spurs

Holmgren’s Game 7 outing was nothing short of brutal. He took two shots all game long. He looked like he was almost too timid to attack fellow 7-footer Wembanyama and struggled to make much of an offensive impact. In a battle of the bigs, Holmgren didn’t measure up despite coming off a career-high campaign in which he earned an All-Star nod and won third-team All-NBA honors.

Holmgren played a pivotal role during the Thunder’s title-winning campaign last season, but was noticeably nowhere to be found during the big moments of Saturday’s loss. He was brutally called out for it. NBC announcer Reggie Miller, in particular, criticized Holmgren repeatedly on air. At halftime Miller said, “There’s gotta be a sighting of Chet Holmgren. He’s the second-best player, he’s an All-Star, I’m looking for him tonight to get involved.”

Reggie Miller on Chet Holmgren in Game 7:

“I mean he hasn’t even attempted a shot in this second half, you’ve got to be kidding me” pic.twitter.com/KrZRDH49Iy

— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) May 31, 2026

The 24-year-old is set to make $41 million next season in the first year of his five-year extension with OKC, and he was considered alongside Gilgeous-Alexander as part of the Thunder’s young core for a dynasty in the making. That doesn’t preclude him from having bad games, though, and on Saturday night he put up a near-goose egg that might start to raise questions about his future with the organization.

Gilgeous-Alexander was asked how he and the Thunder could help get Holmgren more involved offensively after Game 4, and he notably took a few beats to answer the question:

This clip is going to follow Chet Holmgren for a long time after tonight’s game pic.twitter.com/heG9wln0M8

— Tyler DeLuca (@TylerDeLuca) May 31, 2026

All that said, the biggest window for overreactions is immediately after a playoff elimination loss, and there’s still plenty of time for Holmgren to develop into the reliable cornerstone piece the Thunder need him to be. He’ll also get plenty more chances to take down Wembanyama, with rising star-studded juggernauts OKC and San Antonio already forming a fierce rivalry in the West for years to come.