Barely 12 hours had passed when Chet Holmgren had to face the music once again. With a face filled with shell-shock, the All-NBA talent's summer will be haunted by his four-point goose egg in a Game 7 loss that ended their ambitions to be back-to-back champions.
The Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the San Antonio Spurs in an epic seven-game series. The 2026 Western Conference Finals were for the Larry O'Brien in most folks' eyes. Remains to be seen if they're right, but no denying both 60-plus-win machines showed why they were in a tier of their own all year.
When you face a team of that high quality with those types of stakes on the line, it really exposes your weaknesses to the forefront for the entire NBA-sphere to see. In OKC's case, injuries finally caught up. Being without Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell for most of the series was a death blow they couldn't overcome.
The Thunder have been superb at overcoming injuries all season. To the point they went an NBA-best 64-18 in the regular season and swept their first two playoff opponents. But against the Spurs, you needed all hands on deck. Instead, being without two of your three best scorers and ball-handlers absolutely damaged their ******* le odds.
Another takeaway from the series? Holmgren has a Spurs problem.