Williams scores career-high 36 points, leads OKC past Knicks
With one's sweeping motions toward vital shots and the other's affinity for putting three fingers to his head, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams recreated a feeling and refined a prophecy all in one quarter.
A familiar feeling of hope and fortune, sensations that'd only been briefly sparked while the two shared the floor this season like a couple of alternating wires. A story deserving of an oracle and many chapters, with OKC's 129-120 Wednesday win over the Knicks being its best bit of foreshadowing yet.
If there was a night to make the world believe a core three of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Holmgren and Williams could take the Thunder franchise as far as it's ever been without another large variable — even if just for a moment — Wednesday was that.
On the second night of a back-to-back, fresh off the youngest heavyweight of the NBA's statement win over Minnesota, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander carrying a most valuable offensive load, OKC needed a kick.
The weight of the Thunder's 2022 draft fell onto New York like an avalanche.
The flare. The flamboyance. The striking feeling of a foundation.
Williams wielded that power as his fingers gravitated toward his forehead after a sidestep 3-pointer. 1-2-3. Twisted together like a fork, pointed outward like horns. The warning that he — or Dub — has arrived.
It was the first of 17 necessary and eventually excessive fourth-quarter points for Williams. He finished with a career-high 36 points, five rebounds and shot 5 for 5 from deep. The sidestep wasn't even what hurt the most.
It might've been his 3 with 3:11 to play that created a 10-point OKC lead and reaped the Knicks' soul from them. The 3 he dropped 33 seconds later, which prevented any resurrection, was a contender too.
“He just gets more comfortable — every game, every week — with his reps,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Williams. “Biggest thing with him was just him being aggressive early in his career. He's starting to get around to that and trust his work.”
Williams and Holmgren combined to raise hell. As the fourth quarter dwindled, they developed heat seeking vision for each other. For switches, for feeding off the other's strengths.
Holmgren's abilities helped Williams handle like he was on a playground, giving him a way out of the double teams that he'll see from time to time as he directs the non-SGA minutes. Holmgren, who finished with 22 points and four blocks, was there to pick-and-pop, or to just move Taj Gibson out of the way.
“We're trusting each other a lot more than we had been earlier in the year,” Williams said of his pairing with Holmgren.
When the spotlight shifted from one gut wrenching 3 from Williams after another, it was only because of a block Holmgren managed.
His helpside heave toward a Julius Randle shot that only saw glass, or his overkill of a denial on a late Isaiah Hartenstein lob with the game all but sealed. Impossible yet seemingly game-by-game stretches of his fingertips that've been equal parts unsurprising and awe-inducing.
A fourth quarter that probably didn't even need 10% of who Gilgeous-Alexander had became a blur. In part because the pairing of Williams and Holmgren had unleashed their wrath so quickly. In part because it'll only begin to blend in with what fans' idea of the pair's potential can be.
When fans get imaginative inside the depths of the Paycom Center, they're right to assume that the figurative glasss-tained walls inside the house on Reno would tell the story of an MVP-caliber shepherd pacing toward the future.
Though somewhere nearby should be the other two heads of the snake that complete the tale.
Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren connecting at the right time
As great as the two were together on Wednesday, Holmgren and Williams' minutes together (specifically without SGA) haven't all been great to this point. Coach Mark Daigneault said as much himself.
“I give them credit because there was a stretch of games there where we were losing a lot of those minutes — to start the fourth quarter, to start the second quarter,” Daigneault said. ”We tried a lot of different things, they were the common denominators in there.”
If the Thunder organization is going to sleep well at night following some of the rebuild's lows, it'll probably have to find something close to the Big Three that started it all. Luckily for its decision makers, things are trending that way.
SGA is SGA. He'll continue to climb the ladder among the league's elite, and he'll continue to pump out MVP performances. But the dream only works if Holmgren and Williams are as good as they need to be.
Wednesday might've felt like the pinnacle, but there will be heights to reach, and the two certainly don't have to channel that level of play together every night.
They only require shades of what they looked like. They need the gravity that they created for each other, Williams with his downhill play and late shotmaking, Holmgren with his touch, spacing and feel.
Which spot(s) does the other prefer on the floor? Which angle of a screen should Holmgren set to compliment Williams' driving angles? When should they find each other for a pick-and-roll?
The questions will pile up. They'll have to learn the details of one another to perfect their connection. Wednesday was a glimpse of what their potential could be — both together and individually.
Holmgren erased any sign of life from the Knicks behind a few demoralizing blocks. Williams leaned into his role as a secondary creator, caught fire late and became OKC's closer.
“I think it's just more opportunity as far as having close games,” Williams said. “...My team trusts me to make the right play.”
Both shapeshifted into who they'll be in the long run.
“They've done a great job of communicating through that,” Daigneault said. "Building synergy together and incorporating the other guys — it's not a twoman game. I think they've really owned that in a way that is a good example of (how) things aren't always going to be perfect."
SGA’s pace enough to wave off Julius Randle’s theatrics
There were few better matrimonies than Julius Randle and the free throw line Wednesday. James Capers' ear and Randle's bark. The Knicks' forward's death stare and the officiating crew's stripes.
Randle asked — berated, mostly — and received. After chirping through a half of physicality, Randle found himself at the line again and again. And again. 10 of his 25 points came from the free-throw line, with nine of his 13 attempts in the second half.
He bulldozed through OKC's defense, contributing to the start-and-stop that pulled the Thunder by the collar and even helped tie things up.
Then SGA did SGA things.
Ten third-quarter points (the Thunder's next highest was Williams at five), a pair of blocks. He became the sole source of blood flow for an offense that stumbled into a clog. He'd been that through a half, when he scored 19 of his 36 points on just nine shots.
And while not as pretty, his third quarter was the only thing that stood between Randle's piercing glare and Capers.
It's happened so frequently, so effortlessly that fans haven't often batted an eye at the way SGA takes over quarters and games. Wednesday's third quarter was no different. But if SGA doesn't step in before Williams and Holmgren land the knockout punches, there's no telling whether Randle's third quarter could've swelled into something more.
Thunder tip-ins
● The Thunder's four turnovers marked a league low on the season. All three of Holmgren, Williams, and Gilgeous-Alexander's reactions ranging from the big man being impressed to the other two being relatively stunned were all onbrand. On the other end, it forced 18 New York turnovers.