Jalen Williams recalls Nuggets experience after Thunder fall behind 2-1 to Pacers
Jalen Williams recalls Nuggets experience after Thunder fall behind 2-1 to Pacers
Seeing Aaron Nesmith on him, Jalen Williams danced side to side before he settled for a stepback 3-pointer. The outside attempt swished in with less than a second left in the third quarter. It looked like the Thunder had all the momentum with a frame left.
This will go down as another bittersweet performance. Williams finished with 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting, six rebounds and three assists. He shot 1-of-2 from 3 and went 7-of-11 on free throws. He also had one steal.
The Oklahoma City Thunder fell apart late in a 116-107 Game 3 loss to the Indiana Pacers. They're back to trailing in the 2025 NBA Finals in a 2-1 series hole.
Dealing with a wrist ailment, Williams abandoned his jumper. He resorted to bully-ball and drove past several defenders to get to the rim. The plan worked. Indiana didn't have anybody to contain him. He either finished through contact or went to the free-throw line.
After a while, Williams found a groove. He set the tone with two straight buckets to start the second half. He did enough to secure a Game 3 win with his best NBA Finals performance yet. Too bad the rest of the squad couldn't do the same.
"It's kinda the thing I was talking about with the turnovers. This team makes big runs. Those little unforced errors. I can't control if I miss a shot or not. That's not really the issue. A foul, give up an and-one, they're back within two. Now that shot kinda means nothing," Williams said. "We just had a lot of unforced errors. They capitalized on them because they're a good team."
It's a shame most of his best scoring outings these playoffs have come in losses. This was the latest example after two subpar games. If he can carry this over into Game 4, the Thunder should have a decent shot to even the series again.
"We've been in that exact same kind of predicament. This Game 3 was a better Game 3 than the ones we've had, so we'll take that and run with it," Williams said. "It's very pivotal. Obviously, you don't like being down in a series. But we have been here before. We'll take that experience and work to get better for it."
The Thunder hope history can repeat itself. They bounced back with a close Game 4 win over the Denver Nuggets to even that Round 2 series. If they can do the same against the Pacers, they've done their job and split on the toad to retake homecourt advantage.
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