{"id":84474,"date":"2025-06-08T08:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T08:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/84474\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T08:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T08:51:10","slug":"thunder-eyeing-better-shot-creation-from-jalen-williams-chet-holmgren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/84474\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder eyeing better shot creation from Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, which entered these NBA Finals<\/a> as a heavy favorite, trail the Indiana Pacers<\/a> 1-0 as Sunday\u2019s Game 2 approaches<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here were some takeaways from the Thunder<\/a>\u2019s practice on\u00a0Saturday:<\/p>\n

Pre-order commemorative book on Thunder’s run to NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n

MUSSATTO: Behind Ajay Mitchell’s surprise minutes in NBA Finals opener: ‘That’s just what we do’<\/a><\/p>\n

Thunder can\u2019t ‘put ourselves in that position’<\/p>\n

Alex Caruso didn\u2019t seem to think OKC unraveled late in Game 1. Its collapse, at least in his eyes, didn\u2019t come as a result of execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive (Indiana credit),\u201d Caruso said Saturday. \u201cThey made some big shots, some tough ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of that probably comes down to not putting ourselves in a position to where the game comes down to that at the end of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The consensus was that the group could live with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s final shot, a look he\u2019s connected on plenty times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What it couldn\u2019t live with, Caruso said, was its inefficiency in transition, which made its 19 turnovers forced in the first half essentially obsolete. Thursday\u2019s stunner was a slow burn.<\/p>\n

CARLSON: Thunder defense must be better in NBA Finals Game 2 and not leave ‘things on the table’<\/a><\/p>\n

Better shot creation from Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren<\/p>\n

Game 1 yearned for Oklahoma City\u2019s young stars.<\/p>\n

Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, who delivered massively in the West finals, were virtually absent in the Thunder\u2019s series-opening loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two combined for 23 points on 8-of-28 shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually delivering in the Finals is not on the curriculum for third-year players, and they have thrust themselves into that situation, which is a credit to them,\u201d coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cAnd now that they are here, they have to continue to do what they have done all the way through the playoffs, which is go out there, fully compete, learn the lessons, and apply it forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they have done a great job of that. I think you’ve seen that over the course of the playoffs. They haven’t always played their best game, but they always get themselves ready to play the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams, who averaged 22.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists while shooting 46.2% from 3 last round, is accepting the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t ever think that I’m in my third year because then that allows me to make excuses,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI should just go out there and play. Pressure is a privilege. So I enjoy being counted on.\u201d<\/p>\n

More: After NBA Finals Game 1 stunner, here’s why Thunder-Pacers could be closer than expected<\/a><\/p>\n

Thunder need to increase pace, ball movement\u00a0<\/p>\n

For an idea of the Thunder\u2019s ball movement, note that OKC finished Game 1 with a season-low 13 assists; the next lowest of these playoffs was 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe almost tried to slow it down too much instead of matching the pace Indiana plays at,\u201d Caruso said, \u201cwhich we\u2019ve played at as well. I think we\u2019ll do a better job of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is what the Pacers do. In the Thunder\u2019s slip, it succumbed to Indiana\u2019s identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joel Lorenzi\u00a0covers the Thunder and NBA for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joel? He can be reached at jlorenzi@oklahoman.com or on X\/Twitter at\u00a0@joelxlorenzi. Sign up for the\u00a0Thunder Sports Minute newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to access more NBA coverage. Support Joel’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a\u00a0digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MUSSATTO: OKC vs Indiana in NBA Finals shows how system created by Adam Silver & Co. works<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest OKC Thunder news in NBA Finals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder, which entered these NBA Finals as a heavy favorite, trail the Indiana Pacers 1-0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[407,328,7,408,311,1501,623,113,126,832,364,54,79,70,85,6,1220,62,67,310,475,179,3966,3965,61,81,114,65,622,209,66,83,55,64,312,63,82,833],"class_list":{"0":"post-84474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-alex","9":"tag-alex-caruso","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-caruso","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-finals","14":"tag-gilgeous-alexander","15":"tag-indiana","16":"tag-indiana-pacers","17":"tag-jalen","18":"tag-jalen-williams","19":"tag-modular","20":"tag-modular-story","21":"tag-national","22":"tag-national-sports","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-nba-finals","25":"tag-neutral","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-oklahoma","28":"tag-oklahoma-city","29":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","30":"tag-oklahomacity","31":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","32":"tag-overall","33":"tag-overall-neutral","34":"tag-pacers","35":"tag-point","36":"tag-shai","37":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","38":"tag-sports","39":"tag-sports-news","40":"tag-story","41":"tag-the","42":"tag-thunder","43":"tag-to","44":"tag-to-the-point","45":"tag-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}