Chet Holmgren said he still has a long way to go before returning to his pre-injury best for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who visit the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night.
That’s a daunting thought for opposing NBA teams.
Holmgren, who missed 40 games earlier this season with a fractured pelvis, is coming off his top performance since that long layoff, collecting 22 points, 17 rebounds, three blocks and two steals in the Thunder’s 129-121 win over the host Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday.
When asked how close he was to being back to his absolute best, Holmgren was circumspect.
“I don’t know, that’s a hard thing to gauge,” he said. “I know I have a long way to go, but I feel like I’m steadily improving every single day. That’s the focus.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 27, Aaron Wiggins added 24 off the bench and Jalen Williams had 22 as Oklahoma City overturned an 18-point deficit to race past the Nets.
The Thunder were outscored 76-61 in the first half, before outscoring Brooklyn 68-45 after intermission, including an 18-0 fourth-quarter burst.
“I thought our disposition early in the game didn’t match theirs,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “(The Nets) obviously made shots as well. I think some of that has to do with confidence and some of that has to do with the force they were playing with.
“I thought, at least from our perspective, it was no coincidence that some of their shots didn’t go down later when our disposition was a little bit more forceful and we became the aggressor in the game. I definitely think we got better on defense as the game went on.”
While the Western Conference-leading Thunder will be eager to charge out of the blocks with more zeal in Atlanta, the Hawks will be determined to show more toughness in the second half after being steamrolled 131-109 by the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
After scores were squared at 65 at the end of the opening two periods in Florida, Atlanta was blown away 66-44 after halftime.
Dyson Daniels scored 18 points for the Hawks, while Trae Young and Caris LeVert each contributed 17.
Miami went on a decisive 23-6 run to complete the third frame before closing out Atlanta 24-16 in the fourth.
The Hawks’ porous defense allowed the Heat to connect on 59.2 percent from the floor and knock down 23 3-pointers on 42 attempts (54.8 percent).
“You don’t want to just accept and say they shot well,” Atlanta coach Quin Snyder said. “Those threes … they were teeing them up. They were too open. I thought the first half we were right there. Our activity defensively (in the second half) wasn’t what it was (in the first half).
“Our defense (struggled), having to take the ball out of the net when they are making shots, then we got stagnant on the offensive end.”
Head-to-head, the Thunder and Hawks are locked away at 72-all historically, including contests involving the Seattle SuperSonics and St. Louis Hawks.
Oklahoma City won the sides’ meeting earlier this season, a 128-104 home verdict on Oct. 27.
On that occasion, Gilgeous-Alexander, who tops the league’s scoring leaderboard (32.4 points per game), had 35 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. Young, the league’s assist leader (11.4), posted 24 points and eight assists.
