Jalen Williams’ Struggles is Hurting OKC’s Chances

As a first-time All-Star this season, there are high expectations for Williams. Whether or not he performs at a high level, the Thunder need him to come back online in any way. OKC needs to respond, but they will need more of J-Dub to finish strong.

Besides Isaiah Hartenstein who gets a low amount of shot attempts, Williams was the only starter to finish below 10 points in that Game 6 loss. Sure, he has been able to defend well and force a lot of turnovers and block shots. However, OKC will need him to not miss the easy shots that he usually makes. He has missed point-blank shots and hasn’t been able to drill his open looks from three.

Of course, the playoffs has no mercy and demands extra effort from all players. As a young player who has never faced adversity throughout his whole life, this may be hard to cope with. After all, you can’t be a fierce dog if you can’t bite in the first place.

A Noticable Drop and Struggle for Williams

Williams has increased his output for OKC this season. He finished the 2024-25 season with averages of 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.6 steals. However, the shooting splits have dropped at a surprising rate. In his previous season, Williams shot a strong 54% from the field, including 42.7% from three. This season? A fairly steep drop of a 48.4% field goal percentage and 36.5% from downtown.

That is a noticable drop of -5.6% from the field, and -6.2% from three. These are just small numbers, but the current playoff struggles against Denver has been evident that his shooting accuracy is declining at an alarming rate. He did however miss a few key games in the season due to his wrist injury. That may be playing a huge role in his struggles so far, worse than the 2024 Western Conference Semifinals against the Dallas Mavericks.

In the  Game 6 loss Thursday, Chet Holmgren shot 8-for-14 from the field for 19 points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting. Considering that J-Dub is the second scoring option for OKC, an 18.8% shooting is unacceptable. The Thunder has no serious chance of winning a game where Williams is making just 3-of-16 attempts.

In this series alone, Williams has shot 9-of-22 in the restricted area for 40.9% shooting. Those have come from wild misses from open layups and dunks. On the other hand, his midrange was a killer in the regular season, but he is just shooting 3-of-11 in this series.

Remember that massive three that broke the tie in Game 5 against the Nuggets? That was just his seventh three of the series. He went 0-4 in Game 6, now giving him seven makes in 33 attempts.

Can Williams Bounce Back for OKC?

OKC is facing its first Game 7 in a series since 2020, where the players who have experience from that game are SGA and Luguentz Dort. The Thunder lost that game by a bucket. But this is a new group, a different story, a new chapter in OKC’s story of success.

Denver has played in a Game 7 against the Los Angeles Clippers earlier in the first round and won with ease. This one is going to be different, as they will now battle on the road. Oklahoma City, however, is a different beast at home, and it is called Loud City for a reason. Williams should be able to shake off his struggles with the fans behind him.

On that regard, we all know how H-Dub is able to feed off the energy from the crowd. Time and time again, OKC has been able to blow past its opponents at home with huge enthusiasm from the fans. Not every game is a good game, and Williams needs to make Game 7 his best one yet if he is going to help Oklahoma City cruise to its first Western Conference Finals appearance in nine years.