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Oklahoma City Thunder's Chet Holmgren returned to the starting lineup, but alongside Isaiah Hartenstein, he didn't reprise his role at center. For the first time this season, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault inserted Holmgren and Hartenstein into his starting five, and his towering bigs didn't disappoint. They limit the Toronto Raptors to 25 points in the opening frame. Then, Oklahoma City held the New Orleans Pelicans to 20 in the opening frame.
The Thunder, amid a six-game winning streak, are enjoying the fruits of Holmgren's labor, as adding Hartenstein to the lineup has helped alleviate Chet's workload. When asked how Isaiah made his presence felt in the Thunder frontcourt, Holmgren wasn't sure where to begin.
“That's a long list of things,” Holmgren said. “You can talk about his rebounding on both sides. You can talk about his screening the way he gets guys open. You can talk about his defense; he wasn't guarding his true position tonight for most of the game. And at the end of the day, he competes. You always want to play with dudes that compete. If somebody's soft, and it's showing, you never want to play with guys like that. That's just not him at all.
“He's out there to make plays. You got to see, he's throwing people around to get to that glass. It's amazing. It's a lot of fun playing with him out there,” Holmgren concluded.
Isaiah Hartenstein finished with six points, 13 rebounds, and two assists in the Thunder's 137-101 blowout win against the Pelicans. Holmgren finished with 12 points, six rebounds, five blocks, and one steal.
“He's done a really good job communicating and talking,” Holmgren added. “Just as much as I'm trying to figure this out, he's trying to figure it out, too. So, credit to him for being a great teammate there, and that's what he's about. He's about winning, and I feel like we got 17 guys in the locker room that are the same way.”
Chet Holmgren on perceived minutes restriction for Thunder
Thunder forward Chet Holmgren addressed his playing time of late, suggesting he's working way back into the fold while his team's captured blowout wins in his first two games back since November.
“There's no hard minutes restriction,” Holmgren said. “But I think that's just kind of how the game went tonight. I got 25 minutes out there. Then, the game was over.”
On the first night of a back-to-back, Holmgren will have the night off before the Thunder face the Timberwolves on Thursday.
