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Keeping his eye on Toumani Camara as he eventually drove to the basket, Chet Holmgren waited in anticipation. His weakside defense resulted in a loud block that he had timed a couple of seconds before it even materialized on the floor. That's how much of a flow he was on in that side of the floor.
The Oklahoma City Thunder celebrated New Year's Eve with a 124-95 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. The lopsided affair, fueled by stops and turnovers, was quite the way to end the best calendar year in franchise history.
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Holmgren finished with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, 10 rebounds and one assist. He shot 1-of-3 from 3 and went 1-of-2 on free throws. He also had six blocks and two steals
Well, don't think it takes a genius to figure out which position Holmgren thrives in the most. When asked to be a traditional shot-blocker, it's tough to argue that there are more than a handful of better players in the whole league. The Trail Blazers had zero good things on offense because of it.
Portland's offense had no flow. And that started at the top with Deni Avdija. Usually, he'd finesse some points at the free-throw lines with brutal drives to the basket. The Thunder shut that off pretty quickly. When he put the ball down, he either turned it over or had a bad attempt in a clogged paint.
On the other end, Holmgren did enough to keep the offense flowing. He had several finishes around the basket. Because of how quickly things escalated, nobody was asked to play Robin next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Instead, it was a group effort.
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How Holmgren handled his matchup with Donovan Clingan was always going to be an interesting test. No long-term answers were going to come out of it, but it was another unique body type that the seven-footer hasn't really undergone enough reps for. Safe to say he did awesome as these last three games served as a confidence boost.
When asked about being in his defensive mojo, Holmgren compared it to an outside shooter getting hot. Racking up plenty of blocks during this homestand, he said he's only allowed to finish off defensive possessions like that because the rest of his teammates pressured the opposition into desperate drives to the basket.
"I look at it kinda like shooting. At the end of the day, I have to go block the shot, but as a team out there, we have to do things right," Holmgren said. "If somebody doesn't swing you the ball, you can't make the shot. The same way as if we don't do the right things as a team on that end of the floor, the offensive player isn't sped up enough. They see me coming. They make the skip. A lot of things have to happen together."
Reflecting on his 2025, Holmgren started the year recovering from a hip fracture and ended it as a reigning NBA champion. Perhaps nobody else on the Thunder experienced a wider spectrum of emotions. It was quite the career year as the highs resulted in a ring and the lows resulted in another grueling rehab process.
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"Obviously, it's been two different seasons, so it's hard to clump them together. There's a lot of emotions that over time go away all summer and you forget all of the emotions from last season. But when you sit down and think about it, it's really a wild ride," Holmgren said. "There's not a group of guys or coaches or staff that I'd rather do it with. They got my back through and through. I got their back through and through. We've been able to do a lot of good things. There's no reason for that not to continue forward."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Chet Holmgren reflects on 2025 after New Year's win over Trail Blazers
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