OKC Thunder's Jalen Williams Emphasizes Second-Round Importance, Difficulty

The Oklahoma City Thunder played two winner-take-all games in its 2025 NBA championship path. The Denver Nuggets, which won 50 games with a +3.9 net rating (No. 9 in NBA) during the regular season, made three double-digit comebacks in the conference semifinals by outplaying Oklahoma City down the stretch — and in Game 6's case, the whole second half.

Denver's starting lineup cohesion and championship pedigree gave the top overall seed significant matchup problems. It blended methodical offense through MVP finalist Nikola Jokic with potent rebounding thanks to Aaron Gordon and an effective box-and-one defense to slow down MVP winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

However, the Thunder ultimately proved itself as the superior team. Its No. 1 defense held the Nuggets below 110 points in all four wins, including 87 in Game 4 and 93 in Game 7, and forced Jokic into 54.0% 2-point shooting and 31 total turnovers. Oklahoma City committed 46 fewer turnovers and 22 fewer live-ball turnovers than Denver, leading to 36 more field-goal attempts throughout the series.

Thunder All-NBA Third Team and All-Defensive Second Team member Jalen Williams explained why the conference finals were enlightening from his team's perspective on a The Young Man and The Three podcast episode released Thursday morning.

"I'm not gonna say we thought, oh, we can win it if we get past Denver," Williams said. "It's just more like let's get over the hurdle that we were challenged with last year to show that we got better."

Williams told host Tommy Alter that the Thunder's home-court advantage, earned by winning 68 games, helped offset the Nuggets' firepower and experience. The Thunder won three home contests during the series but gave up a heartbreaking, last-second Gordon 3-pointer in Game 1 to fall into an early hole.

"I think last year, that would have devastated us," Williams said. "Once you've been through the playoffs one time, it forces you to be a different person. There's so many emotional swings and ups and downs of the playoffs that it didn't really phase us too much. ... It sucked, but you can't feel sorry for yourself and lock back in."

Williams averaged 17.6 points on 37.5% shooting, 6.0 assists, 5.4 rebounds (1.1 offensive), 1.4 steals and 0.9 blocks in the conference semifinals. He credited Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace's Game 4 shotmaking, Oklahoma City's clutch resilience in Game 5 and Alex Caruso's physical Game 7 defense on Jokic — but was not surprised by the latter.

"It wasn't anything out of the norm for (Caruso)," Williams said. "The way he was playing helped us in a way. Now we can be way more aggressive because Jokic is having to fight for every catch and really work hard. ... The things we do defensively and the talent we have defensively doesn't shock me."