After Ajay Mitchell ripped the ball away on Dallas’ inbound attempt, Jalen Williams trailed behind in transition. He was awarded for keeping up as he received a behind-the-back pass he threw down for a fastbreak dunk that the OKC crowd loved.

Williams finished with 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists. He shot 1-of-3 from 3 and went 4-of-4 on free throws. He also had a steal.

The Oklahoma City Thunder made easy work of the Dallas Mavericks with a 132-111 win. They’ve won 14 in a row to sit atop the NBA standings with a 22-1 record. All with Williams only playing four games, too.

Still figuring out how to shoot, Williams frequently attacked the basket. The Mavericks didn’t have anybody with the right mix of size and speed to slow him down. It was also a short night for the 24-year-old, as he sat out the fourth quarter with a lopsided score.

It’ll be a work in progress on the offensive side for Williams. He admitted as much. For the first time since his return, he pulled back the curtains a bit on his extensive rehab process. At this point, time is the only thing that’ll get him closer to being fully back.

“My wrist being healthy is going to be an ongoing thing. It’s not like this surgery was like, ‘Boom, you’re healthy.’ A lot of it is trying to get my rhythm back to get to the free-throw line, a couple of easy layups. Just trying to get the mentality down of driving and playing with force,” Williams said. “When I haven’t played in so long, that’s usually the hardest part to get back. The more I can attack that, everything else is going to fall into place.”

On the defensive side, though, the Thunder have added an All-Defense player to the NBA’s clear-cut best defense. He helps pressure ball-handlers and can step up as a secondary rim protector when needed. Utilizing his lengthy wingspan, he can poke the ball out of the opposing players’ possession.

Williams has helped OKC’s dominance. And that’ll only increase once he gets more comfortable as a scorer. That should scare the rest of the NBA, as the Thunder have made it obvious in the last two seasons that they belong in a tier of their own.

“In the playoffs, I was shooting the way I was shooting out of functionality in my actual wrist and my hand was numb. A lot of it was based on touch and not so much a follow-through. Now, it’s more of trying to integrate both again. I don’t have the same range of motion as I did before,” Williams said. “A lot of it is trying to constantly get those reps of what my range of motion is. What I need to do mechanically to fix it. After I had my surgery, it wasn’t like I had this two-three week period where I can get shots and work on it.”

It was awesome to hear Williams go into good detail about his five-month recovery that required two wrist surgeries. After being viewed as someone who could be ready by Opening Night, he missed the first month of the season. And even though he’s back, he’s still working his way up to hopefully be at his All-NBA form by the time the playoffs roll around.

“It was like, ‘OK, let’s make sure you can fall and you can just figure it out while you’re playing.’ So I’m not missing 30-40 games trying to get reps up. That’s the biggest thing. A lot of it is me going through the game,” Williams said. “What you’re seeing is some of the first things I’ve done with my hand. That’s the challenge and process of it.”