Stretching his arms out in a T-pose, Jalen Williams tricked Ryan Rollins. A simple pass turned into a steal. The All-NBA talent shouldered his way to the basket for the transition layup. The defense-to-offense sequence had been his specialty over the years, but it's good to see it back after such a frustrating season this past year.
The Oklahoma City Thunder dropped another one with a 128-126 preseason loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. But the first half made the second-half meltdown an afterthought.
Williams finished with 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting, six assists and three rebounds. He shot 0-of-3 from 3. He also had two steals.
Other players of the caliber of Williams might take it easy in preseason, but he played with the same speed he usually does.
All of his buckets happened at the rim. The 25-year-old sliced through Milwaukee's defense. And even if there was traffic, he muscled his way through for finesse layups.
The Thunder only needed to see one half out of Williams. He turned in a super-efficient scoring night. Not only that, but he completely wrecked the Bucks' halfcourt offense. Anytime they tried to run a set, he'd disrupt things. Everybody knows how awesome he is on offense. But you could make a sound argument that his better side of the floor falls on defense.
"He was awesome. It's just great to see him out there playing with the confidence and aggression that he did on both ends of the floor. He's got an electric motor," Mark Daigneault said about Williams. "That really is contagious inside the team. You really feel it when he's on the court on both ends of the court."
Great to see Williams back in action. It's a humongously-important year for him. After a down season, he must bounce back. Or raise questions about his long-term spot. That said, this was a great spot. Albeit an inconsequential one. Just like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, there's little to learn from this environment for recent All-NBA players.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Healthy Jalen Williams rediscovers his joy in OKC's preseason loss to Bucks
