The OKC Thunder lost 102-117 tonight to the Spurs, making it their third loss against them in as many games this season. Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander spoke to the media after the game and addressed the outcome of the game.
While Gilgeous-Alexander was more focused internally, Williams pointed to one player whom they simply could not find a way around: Victor Wembanyama.
“There’s this guy on their team that’s seven foot five and takes up a lot of space on the court,” said Williams when asked what the Spurs do so well that puts the defending champions off their game.
“So that’s that defensively, and then offensively they play as a team. They kind of remind us, or at least me, of like my second year. Just how like together they play, and they’re figuring that out as a team.”
“They all do well in their role, and they’re okay with that, which is fun to play against. Definitely gives us a lot to learn from in regards to that,” Williams further added.
“So that’s pretty cool to see it. It s**ks obviously being on the other end of it, but watching another team that’s over the course of just basketball history has always found a way to figure out how to improve, that’s the biggest thing.”
“Like they’re connected. You can tell guys are stepping up, making big plays. Like everybody’s kind of like settled into their role. So that’s what makes them tough.”
“And then like I said, just having Victor out there just defensively covers up for a lot of their mistakes, which is why our offensive progression is so much more important cause it’s like he can really affect a game if you kind of like let them do what they scheme to do,” concluded Williams.
Wembanyama averaged 17.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists against the Thunder this season on a 53.1% efficiency from the field over three games. This includes tonight’s performance of 19 points, 11 rebounds, and two assists while shooting 54.5% from the floor.
In a way, Williams said the same thing about the Spurs that Wembanyama did about the Thunder. Wembanyama gave credit to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the best player in the league, but also said the amount of defensive attention he draws allows the other players to be better.
Moreover, Wembanyama’s comments seemingly had a different undertone; they seemed like a shot at Chet Holmgren at the time. However, it does not seem like Williams is taking a shot at Wembanyama or anyone else on the Spurs in his comments.
He’s simply saying that Wembanyama is that impactful due to his size on defense, that he covers up for his teammates’ defensive blunders, which allows them to focus more on the offensive end of the floor.
Some might interpret this as a veiled shot at the Spurs, but in fact, it seems that the Thunder’s lesson here is to learn from their mistakes if they want to have a shot at repeating a championship run.
Furthermore, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went as far as to concede that the Spurs are better than the Thunder presently. Rarely does a player admit that another team is better than them, let alone defending champions saying that.
The reigning MVP encouraged the team to look within and figure out ways to improve.
“We have to get better as a group. You don’t lose to a team three times in a row in a short span without them being better than you. So, we have to get better. We have to look in the mirror. And that’s everybody from top to bottom if we want to reach our ultimate goal,” said Gilgeous-Alexander after the game.
The Canadian guard clearly had an off-night today, as he had 22 points, six rebounds, and four assists while shooting an inefficient 7-of-19 from the floor (36.8%) and 1-of-6 from the three-point line (16.6%). He had the worst net (+/-) rating on the entire Thunder roster tonight: -15.
Meanwhile, Williams had 12 points, two rebounds, six assists, two steals, and was the only player with a positive net (+/-) rating for the Thunder (+4).
They will face the Spurs once again on January 14 with a chance to avoid getting blown out in their regular season record against Wembanyama’s team, as they are currently 0-3 this season.
The defending champions, who started the season with a 16-game win streak, have now fallen to 26-5 for the season. It will be interesting to see if the Thunder will have their first losing streak or if they will bounce back when they face the 76ers in their next game on Sunday.
