Minneapolis – There is a level of control that comes with an extraordinary success in the NBA until a team won a championship.
While Oklahoma City skyrocketed a campaign of 68 victories, a question that was frequently given about the projector treatment was whether the Thunder’s list included the caliber of the second notation option necessary to make a title.
Monday evening at the Target Center, the answer was a resounding yes.
Jalen Williams, a first All-Star and a selection of the third All-NBA team in his third season, had the best offensive performance of his career in the playoffs in a 128-126 victory on match 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves who put Oklahoma City One Win far from an NBA final. He scored 34 points of 34 points in the playoffs while the Thunder took a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference final.
“I feel like if you’re not really good, you probably don’t have [scrutiny]So play with that, just continue, “said Williams.” Many people who talk about me cannot do what I do, and I know, and I think it gives me a lot of confidence to go there and do everything the team needs. “”
Williams finished 13 of 24 on the ground, including 6 out of 9 from the 3 -point beach. This is the most made 3S of his career in any game, highlighted by a few strokes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander feds while Oklahoma City protected his advance late.
“He was special,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “He was really good this evening from start to finish. He chose his places. He was aggressive. He entered everything. He was who he was. He got all these prices for a good reason. He proved it tonight.”
Gilgeous-Alexander also had a total of high-level markings with 40 points, but it was not as effective as usual, going 13 out of 30 on the ground. He also collected 10 assists and 9 rebounds.
It was Williams, 24, who dominated when the match was at stake. He scored 14 points on a shot of 5 out of 7 in the fourth quarter, putting Gilgeous-Aalexander in a position to seal the victory with free throws in the last two minutes.
Williams, who had a bad shooting series when the Thunder was eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks in the semi-finals of last season’s conference, experienced a top to the top and bottom series. He endured a shooting funk of 10 out of 43 on a stretch of three games in the semi-finals of the conference this time, but he left the crisis categorically with 24 points out of 17 shots in a rout of match 7 above the Denver Nuggets.
The pressure intensified while the Thunder struggled with the most unbalanced defeat in the history of the franchise in match 3 of Saturday, Williams started hot and finished hard in match 4, opening with 13 points in the first quarter and closing with his Rafale of 14 points in fourth.
“He has shown a lot of growth, honestly,” said Thunder Luguentz Dort goalkeeper, who joins Gilgeous-Alexander as the oldest players in six campaigns. “You grow through the experience, and he improves in each match, each series. It is an All-Star for a reason, and he will appear in this type of game.”
Williams was held at 13 points out of 9 shots in the rout of match 3, after which Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said that the Timberwolves had forced him to the right. Williams adapted to the Minnesota approach in match 4.
“He always learns. He is still a young player, and they are experiences rich for him,” said Daigneault about Williams. “Tonight, he has somehow taken what they gave him. He has always found his cracks. He is always able to put himself in both directions, but he was just in control most of the time. He never seemed accelerated. He never seemed to dictate anything.
Oklahoma striker City Power / Center Chet Holmgren, classmate of Williams in the 2022 draft, also increased in match 4, marking nine of his 21 points in the fourth quarter.
According to ESPN Research, the 95 points combined by Gilgeous-Aalexander, Williams and Holmgren are the most by a Thunder trio in an eliminatory match since the franchise has moved to Oklahoma City in Seattle in 2008. Gilgeous-Alexander considers that the production of an overview of what will happen.
“He still has much more space to grow, which is the frightening part,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “I am 26 years old, which seems old. They are 23 and 24. They have not even approached to hit their peak.
A victory far from the victory of the West, Williams stressed the importance of focusing solely on the present. It was an ascent season for him, winning a fully defensive place in the second team among his other honors, but he said that this is not the time for him to appreciate his achievements or to wait impatiently the NBA final.
“I try not to get too advance with me, to be honest,” said Williams. “There are still a lot of series. We still have to go do this next match against a team that is very good. So, that’s honestly like that I think about it. I think that after the season, whenever it is, I can think about it, and it’s more time to appreciate it.”
