OKLAHOMA CITY — After scoring his final points on a gritty offensive rebound and putback in traffic, Chet Holmgren flexed his muscles.
He’d certainly earned the right. He was a force all night, and his last bucket put the Oklahoma City Thunder ahead by 18 with 1:25 remaining in Game 2 against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. It would have punctuated Oklahoma City’s 118-99 victory — had Holmgren not done what he did next.
As Holmgren celebrated the bucket, Grizzlies reserve Santi Aldama streaked down the left sideline, sneaking past the Thunder’s defense and into position for two rare Grizzlies transition points. With his teammates calling out the free-running Aldama, Holmgren whipped his head around and immediately recognized what needed to be done.
Aldama had two steps on Holmgren, but Holmgren turned on his jets, sprinted from half court to catch Aldama and blocked his layup from behind. When the Thunder secured the ricochet, Holmgren pumped both arms in the air twice as he transitioned to offense. He wanted more noise from an already-jacked Paycom Center crowd.
When they say hustle until the final whistle, this is what they mean ‼️ pic.twitter.com/exFLX9GBKW
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) April 23, 2025
The Thunder cruised to a 2-0 series lead against the Grizzlies using lockdown defense, relentless tenacity and a night full of hustle plays like Holmgren’s sensational chase-down block on Aldama.
Holmgren finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks, tying his playoff career high. The Thunder registered eight blocked shots for the second straight game, a sign that their length is causing chaos for the Grizzlies’ offense. Memphis is struggling mightily just to generate consistently clean looks.
In the opening quarter, the Thunder held the Grizzlies’ starters to 3-for-21 shooting. Oklahoma City started the game on a 9-0 run and never trailed. Memphis didn’t score its first points until the 8:27 mark of the opening quarter.
“We just wanted to make an emphasis to come out and win that first quarter, set the tone for the night,” Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It just carried out throughout the game.”
Oklahoma City led by as many as 23 points, but unlike Game 1, the Thunder couldn’t push the lead higher. Memphis cut the margin to eight points on multiple occasions in the third quarter after its scorers found their shooting touch. The Thunder, however, started the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run and took a 20-point lead.
“In the third, we didn’t make 3s, we didn’t get to the line, and nothing was really easy,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “To drum up 20 points in that circumstance is good grind by our team. It’s something we’re going to need. You don’t just stay in a perpetual rhythm in the NBA playoffs. They’re going to go in and out on offense, but can you manufacture enough offense?”
Tuesday was the most Oklahoma City has been challenged this series. The Thunder have held the lead for all but 2:21 of the 96 minutes over the first two contests.
They’ve done it despite Gilgeous-Alexander, an MVP finalist, scoring only 42 points combined on 14-for-42 shooting and going 4-for-17 on 3-pointers. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged a career-high 32.7 points in the regular season and 32.6 points on 53.7 percent shooting in the four-game regular season series with the Grizzlies.
“He might miss a couple of shots that look routine that he might normally make,” Thunder guard Alex Caruso said. “But if we’re winning games how we’re winning them, and he’s having average days, I think that bodes well for us moving forward.”
With the Thunder executing at the level they have at both ends, they appear impossible to beat. Their focus doesn’t wane. Their depth overwhelms. Their connectedness and unselfishness make every player who touches the floor a threat.
Behind their shutdown defense, the Thunder are generating gobs of easy scoring opportunities in transition. They outscored the Grizzlies 21-3 in fast break points Tuesday. Through two games, that margin balloons to 48-8. Tuesday. The Thunder also enjoyed a 25-6 advantage in points off turnovers.
“That’s our identity,” Thunder guard Jalen Williams said. “When we can hang our hat on that on a nightly basis, we’ll be in pretty good shape. You can’t really control a lot offensively. You can go through the process of making the right plays, but there’s going to be nights where you don’t shoot it well. That’s not an excuse to not win the game or compete. We try to hang our hat defensively and make sure we’re not giving them easy ones and making sure they have to earn a lot of stuff.”
As the series shifts to Memphis for Games 3 and 4, Daigneault anticipates the Grizzlies assembling their best game. He noted how Grizzlies key players Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. attempted nearly two-thirds of Memphis’ shots Tuesday.
“I felt we did a good job on those guys again,” Daigneault said postgame. “They were just more of themselves than they were in Game 1. I thought they had an outlier game in Game 1, the three of those guys. Tonight, Jackson played better, but I still liked what we did. I thought our process was pretty good.
“But we’ve got to understand they shot two-thirds of their shots. So when we go to Memphis, we’ve got to expect those guys to be super aggressive. We’ve got to expect their team to try to free those guys up, and we’ve got to be ready for that.”
(Photo of Chet Holmgren blocking a shot by Desmond Bane: Alonzo Adams / Imagn Images)
