Thunder's Jalen Williams reveals how OKC stuck together after 'nasty' back-to-back

12/21/2024 12:04 AM

The Jalen Williams and the OKC Thunder have been having themselves a week.

First, they flew out to Las Vegas to take part in the NBA Cup Championship game, losing a weird one to the Milwaukee Bucks 81-97. Then, they shipped off to Orlando for a 105-99 win over the always-tricky Orlando Magic before finally traveling down the Florida Turnpike for a back-to-back date with the Miami Heat in South Beach.

A tough ask? Yes. But for the Thunder, they took it in stride, with Williams’ 33 points helping to lead the way to a 104-97 win over the Heat.

Asked about the challenge of playing so many important games right in a row after the game, Williams celebrated his teammates for coming together and working together, as he believes they are on the cusp of something great.

“It was a nasty back-to-back, obviously flying from Vegas,” Jalen Williams said, “but just perseverance and maturity, I think this group is getting more and more mature with each other and just understanding what it takes to win on a nightly basis.”

Asked about how the Thunder have been able to rally together and attack opposing teams from all over the court, Williams noted that he believes in his teammates, and they believe in him, which makes their ability to come together all the more important.

“Just to be aggressive and also to trust my teammates to make the right play. Like I said before, we have a lot of good players on our team, so it's pretty easy to trust what happens. And on our team, what goes around comes back around, so everybody did a good job of that tonight,” Williams explained.

“Would you believe me that we take it pretty seriously? Down the stretch these are games that we love; just to be able to work on our game, work on the stuff. It's stuff we do at the end of every practice, late game, and I thought we executed it pretty well.”

Sitting pretty at 22-5, the best mark in the West, if the Thunder haven’t fully come into themselves from a chemistry standpoint, it’s hard to imagine just how good they can become when that day arrives. NBA, take note: this Thunder team is legit.

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