Wrist surgery setbacks fade as Jalen Williams ignites the Thunder with stellar play, silencing doubters with every clutch performance.
Jalen Williams is trending up.
The Thunder All-Star led Oklahoma City to a 21 point comeback against the Memphis Grizzlies with fellow OKC Big 3 members Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren on the shelf on Friday and followed that performance up with 18 points on 9-13 shooting in a win over the Miami Heat on Sunday. Williams, of course, missed the first 19 games of the season due to surgery on a torn ligament in his shooting wrist and a follow up procedure to remove a bothersome screw.
Understandably, Williams has had some up and down shooting performances since his return to play. He has had to adjust to a current new normal which involves a limited range of motion, soreness, swelling and pain. All things considered, the fourth year pro has performed remarkably. Williams is averaging 17.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game. The much maligned shooting numbers don't match the criticism: 47.2% from the field, 28.1% from deep and 82.5% from the free throw line. Sure, the 3 point percentage is rough, but you could say that about the Thunder team as a whole over the past few weeks.
Unfortunately, some social media negativity has been aimed Williams' way. He has noticed it, but he's been able to find some humor in it and share his mature perspective and mindset.
"I thought I was my biggest critic. It might be Twitter," Williams said in the postgame press conference after the win over the Heat. "I just need to take it day by day. Mark's been good at just saying, 'It's gonna take time.' What I have is not a normal... there's not like a hundred people running around with this injury. Nor do they have that many people with that and have surgery twice. So it's one of those things where, I kinda look at it as a new opportunity to show people that end up going through it at some point that it's possible to maneuver through it. So that's how I've been looking at it. Like all things, it takes time. But I'll figure it out. I'll be able to manage. I'll get everything else going. I feel like I can do a lot of things on the court. I can still score, obviously, as you can see throughout this span. Not too worried about it or hyperfixated on it. Just gotta let it do it's thing and just make sure I keep putting in the work like I usually do."
Despite any outside noise, Williams is playing better each game. Which is great news for the Thunder with the San Antonio Spurs rolling into OKC on Tuesday night.