Last season, both Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama led the race for the Rookie of the Year award, but it eventually ended up in the French player’s hands. Although it was deserving of his first-year efforts, the Thunder center continues to improve his game and is establishing himself as one of the best big men in the NBA.
This Wednesday evening, we witnessed this season’s first battle between these two sophomore centers, in which Chet led a suffocating defensive effort which led to Oklahoma City beating San Antonio 105-93. Even though Holmgren was clearly better last night, he denied any claims of there being a rivalry against Wemby.
“Because the NBA is a business, and the league has been built around players playing basketball,” the 22-year-old said. “It’s about getting people to come and watch the games. That’s one of the ways they do it: by advertising the players. I just see it as a form of advertisement. It doesn’t change what our mission is. We’re trying to win the basketball games. The NBA is gonna handle the business around it.”
Chet Holmgren got the best of Victor Wembanyama in the latest meeting of the NBA’s young giants.@KellyIko and @AndrewKSchlecht were there to chronicle the latest showdown.
Welcome to the Unicorn Diary ⤵️https://t.co/NuYz18AzHW pic.twitter.com/j3S2QShICu
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) October 31, 2024
In last night’s efforts, as the primary defender Holmgren was able to limit the Spurs’ shooter to 10 points on 4-for-17 attempts from the floor and 0-for-7 from beyond the arc. OKC ended the match with 18 steals, nine of them in each half of the contest.
This stat became the second-most steals they’ve earned in a game since the franchise arrived in Oklahoma over 15 years ago, and was crucial during the clash. The Thunder were able to rack up 27 points that came off 22 Spurs turnovers. “We won tonight on the defensive end,” Chet told the press after the match.
“It wasn’t perfect on offense. I feel like we were very solid almost throughout the whole game on the defensive end,” he added, while his rival Wembanyama admitted that OKC were better and refused to acknowledge any rivalry between him and Holmgren.
“It’s not,” the big man said, “because I don’t have a social network right now. I’m not following that at all. So I don’t feel that. But every time I go up against a good player at that position, it’s a different kind of challenge because it’s not the case with every team. Not every team has an offensive-minded big. So it’s always a good challenge.”
Wembanyama logged career lows in points and field goals last night and explained how he wasn’t getting any easy shots against the Thunder
Once the game was over, Wemby was asked to reflect on a match which included two of his worst stats in an NBA game: career-low six-point game with only one field goal dropped all night. He knew that OKC didn’t concede an inch for him to get the shots he wanted.
“I’m not getting easy shots,” said the San Antonio star. “I have to be way better at preparing. Of course, my shot feels good. Physically, I feel good. But I need to be much better at preparing and getting conditions to have those easy shots.”
The Spurs were clearly ran over in last night’s defeat, and coach Greg Popovich felt the need to apologize to the press present at the Paycom Center for the postgame interview. However, he did not do it due to his team’s performance, but because he was late after talking to his locker room and didn’t take any questions.
“That’s a very good defensive team,” he said about the Thunder. “It’s a playoff team that’s very possibly going very deep into the playoffs. They’re a better team than we are. But that’s beside the point. We’re trying to get to their level.”
