Chet Holmgren's struggles continue in Thunder's Game 4 loss to Spurs

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With his hand completely busted open, Chet Holmgren's blood-covered digits encapsulated another off night. The Spurs continue to be in his nightmares. When it felt like he was taking baby steps towards being an impactful player, he joined the rest in being no-shows as it felt like they were content with the road split.

Nothing went right for the Oklahoma City Thunder in their 103-82 Game 4 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. The 2026 Western Conference Finals is tied at 2-2 apiece.

Holmgren finished with 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting, nine rebounds and two assists. He shot 0-of-1 from 3 and went 4-of-6 on free throws. He also had one block.

At this point, you can't really expect much out of Holmgren the rest of the way. It is what it is. Yes, an All-NBA player should stamp his presence louder than this. And yes, it's frustrating that he can't scale up as a scorer when needed the most. But that's the reality of the situation. We have enough of a sample size against the Spurs to prove that.

Just another disastrous outing for Holmgren. His movie-star confidence from the first two rounds has completely dimmed. You can partially blame his ineffectiveness on OKC's lack of ball-handlers to feed him the ball, but at the end of the day, he needs to be better and more assertive.

"They played like their season was on the line and we didn't," Holmgren said. "It shows on the box score."

Heck, perhaps Holmgren's best play was when he drove on Victor Wembanyama for a dunk attempt in the first half. Sure, he got blocked. But you'd much rather see that than another OKC possession thrown to the garbage because nobody sans Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can create their own look at this stage.

"No matter what I do out there, I always expect more for myself, expect better. I can see a lot of opportunities in the game where I have to be better and take advantage of," Holmgren said. "I'm going to do everything I can to do that."

It's an unfair set of circumstances, but the Thunder have to play better straight up. Even if Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell remain out. You can't just shrug your shoulders at how disgusting this offense looks just because those two are out. Or you risk being sent home by the Spurs. Things have to change in a Game 5 that has entered must-win territory for OKC.

"We have to trust each other. We have to use each other to help find cracks, help get good looks. If one or two don't go down, we can't lose trust in having the right process out there," Holmgren said. "I'd say the biggest thing is just trusting each other and having the right mindset to try and use each other to get in the cracks."

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Chet Holmgren's struggles continue in Thunder's Game 4 loss to Spurs

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