Jalen Williams keys Game 4 win as Thunder goes up 3-1 on Wolves

MINNEAPOLIS – There’s an akin of analysis that comes with amazing success in the NBA until an aggregation wins a championship.

As Oklahoma City soared to a 68-win campaign, one catechism that was frequently accustomed the spotlight analysis was whether the Thunder’s agenda included the ability of additional scoring advantage all-important to accomplish an appellation run.

On Monday night at Target Center, the acknowledgment was a aural yes.

Jalen Williams, a first-time All-Star and a third-team All-NBA alternative in his third season, had the best abhorrent achievement of his postseason career in a 128-126 Bold 4 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves that put Oklahoma City one win abroad from an NBA Finals berth. He denticulate a playoff-career-high 34 credibility as the Thunder took a 3-1 alternation advance in the Western Appointment finals.

“I feel like if you’re not absolutely good, you’re apparently not activity to accept any [scrutiny], so aloof comedy with it, aloof accumulate going,” Jalen Williams said. “A lot of bodies that are talking about me can’t do what I do, and I apperceive that, and I anticipate that gives me a lot of aplomb to aloof go out there and do whatever the aggregation needs.”

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Jalen Williams accomplished 13-of-24 from the floor, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range. That’s the best fabricated 3s of his career in any game, accent by a brace of clamp shots off feeds from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as Oklahoma City adequate its advance late.

“He was special,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was absolutely acceptable tonight from alpha to finish. He best his spots great. He was aggressive. He stepped into everything. He was who he is. He’s gotten all these awards for acceptable reason. He accepted it tonight.”

Gilgeous-Alexander additionally had a playoff-career-high scoring absolute with 40 points, but he wasn’t as able as usual, activity 13-of-30 from the floor. He additionally had 10 assists and 9 rebounds.

It was Jalen Williams, 24, who bedeviled back the bold was in the balance. He denticulate 14 credibility on 5-of-7 cutting in the fourth quarter, putting Gilgeous-Alexander in position to allowance the win with chargeless bandy cutting in the final brace of minutes.

Jalen Williams, who had a poor cutting alternation back the Thunder were alone by the Dallas Mavericks in aftermost season’s Western Appointment semifinals, has had an active playoff run. He endured a 10-of-43 cutting alarm over a three-game amplitude during the appointment semis this time around, but he bankrupts out of the slump in absolute appearance with 24 credibility on 10-of-17 cutting in a Bold 7 beating over the Denver Nuggets.

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Jalen Williams Bounces Back Big in Game 4, Sparks Thunder with Early Surge and Late Heroics

With the burden agitated as the Thunder were advancing off the best askew playoff accident in authorization history during Saturday’s Bold 3, Williams started hot and accomplished able in Bold 4, aperture with 13 credibility in the aboriginal division and closing with his 14-point flurry in the fourth.

“He showed a lot of growth, honestly,” said Thunder bouncer Luguentz Dort, who joins Gilgeous-Alexander as the team’s longest-tenured players at six campaigns. “You abound through experience, and he’s been accepting bigger every game, every series. He’s an All-Star for a reason, and he’s activity to appearance up in those blazons of games.”

Jalen Williams was captivated to 13 credibility on 3-of-9 cutting in the Bold 3 rout, afterwards which Thunder drillmaster Mark Daigneault said the Timberwolves affected him right. Williams acclimatized to Minnesota’s access in Bold 4.

“He’s still learning. He’s an adolescent amateur still, and these are affluent adventures for him,” Daigneault said of Jalen Williams. “Tonight, he aloof affectionate of took what they gave him. He still begins his cracks. He’s still able to get in both directions, but he aloof was in ascendancy best of the time. He never seemed sped up. He never seemed like they were dictating anything. That’s what the abundant abhorrent players can do and aloof a abundant acclimation by him tonight in the game.”

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Oklahoma City ability forward/center Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams’ acquaintance in the 2022 draft, additionally rose to the break in Bold 4, scoring nine of his 21 credibility in the fourth quarter.

According to ESPN Research, the 95 credibility accumulated by Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren are the best by a Thunder leash in a playoff bold back the authorization confused to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008. Gilgeous-Alexander considers that assembly a glimpse of what’s to come.

“It still has so abundant added allowance to grow, which is the alarming part,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I’m 26, which seems old. They’re 23 and 24. They haven’t alike gotten abutting to hitting their prime yet. Both of them are aloof out there arena on feel and their talent. I’m aflame for the future.”

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One achievement abroad from acceptable the West, Williams emphasized the accent of absorption alone on the present. It has been a division of ascent for him, earning a second-team All-Defensive atom amid his added honors, but he said now is not the time for him to acknowledge his accomplishments or attending advanced to the NBA Finals.

“I try not to get too advanced of myself with it, to be honest,” Jalen Williams said. “There’s still a lot of alternation left. We still accept to go do a job this abutting bold adjoin an aggregation that’s actual good. So, that’s candidly how I anticipate about it. I anticipate afterwards the season, whenever that is, I’ll be able to reflect on it, and that’s added the time to adore it.”