Thunder’s Chet Holmgren stuns Lakers with wild Russell Westbrook stat line

With the Los Angeles Lakers devoting every ounce of their defensive attention towards stopping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren has stepped up rather well for the Oklahoma City Thunder through the first two games of their Western Conference semifinal series.

Holmgren, in Game 2, was the Thunder’s steadying force, recording 22 points to lead the team in scoring (tied with Gilgeous-Alexander) to go along with nine rebounds, three assists, four steals, and two blocks in a 125-107 victory. He went 7-11 from the field (3-5 from deep) as he took advantage of all the open space he had due to all the aggressive coverage Gilgeous-Alexander was drawing.

In so doing, Holmgren became just the second player in the history of the Thunder franchise to record those kinds of numbers in a playoff game, joining Russell Westbrook in the process, per StatMuse.

Westbrook put up 29 points, 12 rebounds, four steals, two blocks while making four triples on the 23rd of April back in 2019. Every Thunder fan would remember this game, as this was the night where they lost Game 5 of their first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers courtesy of a ” bad shot” from Damian Lillard.

This was the game that spurred OKC’s rebuild; Westbrook did have a few rough plays in the clutch of that 118-115 loss to the Blazers and he ended up making just 11 of his 31 field goals on that fateful night.

As for Holmgren, he was one of the fruits of the Thunder’s rebuild, being the second pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, and his performance came in an efficient manner in a victory.

Westbrook was very important for the Thunder franchise and there is no self-respecting OKC fan who would ever talk smack towards the 2017 NBA MVP. But the Thunder are in the position they’re in now because GM Sam Presti decided to move on from the Westbrook-led core, and in turn, they have now blossomed into the most dominant team in today’s NBA.

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