Moving over on help, Jalen Williams caught Stephon Castle by surprise. As the latter tried to go for the poster, the former jumped in the air with him. The All-NBA talent nastily rejected him with a weakside block. I guess OKC could've certainly used that type of all-world player at the highest stage last year. Alas. Enough with living in the past.
The Oklahoma City Thunder absolutely bullied the San Antonio Spurs in a 116-104 win on Opening Night. They led throughout most of the contest and by as many as 26 points.
Williams finished with 12 points on 5-of-16 shooting, seven rebounds and two assists. He shot 1-of-2 from 3 and went 1-of-2 on free throws. He also had one block.
The offense doesn't really jump off the screen, but man, Williams just makes the Thunder better. Plain and simple. On both ends. The defense receives an injection of otherworldly versatility. And the offense gets somebody who can keep the rhythm going as one of their top scorers. Even if he comes up with hilariously missed attempts on ambitious trick shots.
If the Thunder hope to run a well-oiled offense — that grows independent of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Superman-esque shot-making — then Williams has to play a key role in that. Especially when the two-time MVP is off the floor. Zooming out over several years, there's a track record of success. But it's been a minute since the 25-year-old was that guy for OKC. Let's see if he can don the Robin outfit once again.
"Our group is pretty battle-tested. Obviously, we got some new pieces for the most part. We've had guys that made pretty deep playoff runs. Obviously, a lot of our team was a part of the team that won. So I would just say it's battle-tested," Williams said. "We trust each other to make the right plays. We trust each other. If we mess up, we have each other's backs. That's just built over years of playing with each other. It kinda just shines through whenever we get in these kinds of tough spots."
The Thunder operate on a different level when Williams is hitting on all cylinders. As you saw with some of their game-defining runs that really blew this open. The energy level is just livelier when he's in uniform rather than in street clothes. Perhaps no better example was when he got into the meat of things between Fox and Holmgren following the former's flagrant.
"Just be there for my teammate. That's it," Williams said. "I didn't really like the play. I just ran in there. If anybody has ever been in a scuffle, there's really not a lot of thinking to it. It's just to make sure I have my guys back in there. NBA scuffles are just grab whoever's close and just push. Cost me $2,500, though. It's the first-ever Williams-Williams-Williams T-up, so happy to be a part of it."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Jalen Williams helps Thunder look fully operational in Opening Night win over Spurs