This OKC Thunder team constantly preaches living in the moment and not getting distracted by outside noises. In many ways, this kind of approach played a significant role in the ball club navigating a bevy of adversities a season ago and ultimately winning the 2025 NBA Championship.
Chet Holmgren perfectly displayed this mentality while discussing his dust-up with Suns guard Grayson Allen following Wednesday night's NBA Cup matchup.
Status alert: Grayson Allen has been ejected Wednesday after being assessed a Flagrant 2 foul.pic.twitter.com/iIHDYX00Kt
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) December 11, 2025
During the third quarter of action, Holmgren was essentially shoulder-checked by Allen while fighting through a screen, causing him to plummet to the ground and both teams to jaw at one another until the officiating crew intervened.
The act was deemed a flagrant foul penalty two, sending the Thunder big man to the charity stripe and the Suns guard to the showers
After the game, one in which OKC bulldozed their way to a 138-89 blowout win, Holmgren was asked about the on-court interaction with Allen, where, instead of giving the media a WWE-esque soundbite, he took the high road and acknowledged that he quickly put the altercation in the rearview once referees had stepped in.
"I just think when two really good teams are going at it, being physical, plays happen. I think it was officiated correctly," Holmgren said. "It happened and then I moved on, kept trying to play the basketball game."
Chet Holmgren practices what Thunder constantly preach
Despite his insistence that he and the Thunder quickly moved on from any raised tempers from Allen's antics, Holmgren's fellow teammate and the first man to step up in his defense, Jalen Williams, said following the contest that the whole sequence of events "added more juice to the game" and that it lit "a fire" under them.
From both the eye test and advanced metrics, this surely seemed to be the case.
From then on out, they outscored the Suns 44-31 while holding them to a mere 39.3 percent shooting from the floor and 27.3 percent shooting from deep, and forced them into seven turnovers en route to Oklahoma City's 24 win on the year and, in turn, a second consecutive NBA Cup semifinal appearance.
Along the way, Holmgren continued to showcase his career-best productivity, as he poured in 24 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks while shooting an incredibly efficient 69.2 percent from the floor and a perfect 4-for-4 from distance in only three quarters of play.
With this commanding win, the Thunder have now tied for the best start in NBA history through the first 25 games of action and punched their ticket for a single-elimination matchup against the San Antonio Spurs this coming Saturday out in Las Vegas.