Stiles Points: Jalen Williams Due to Deliver in Game 3

The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers and it has been a slow-burn for Jalen Williams to date. It feels as if the Santa Clara product will soon be bursting onto the scene this series.

Jun 8, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) reacts after a play against the Indiana Pacers during the first half during game two of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Pressure is an interesting thing. Sometimes, it swells to a breaking point and forces players to crumble under the weight of the expectations and the gravity of the situation. Sometimes, it sets the stage for legendary performances.

Oklahoma City's All-Star Jalen Williams is no stranger to pressure. From the word go in his NBA career, the No. 12 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft was tasked with making a winning impact at the professional level as the No. 2 option on a varsity club. That is quite the 180 for the mid-major late riser in that class.

He has handled it with grace, embracing his ever-growing role to turn in a season that earned him All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive honors while helping guide the Bricktown Ballers to a record-breaking 68-win season en route to its second-ever NBA Finals berth.

A third-year player isn't supposed to be the No. 2 option on a title team. They aren't supposed to have it all figured out. They aren't supposed to be this good. Williams doesn't care what is supposed to happen.

"I try and think of myself as somebody that's very uncommon. I don't ever think that I'm in my third year because then that allows me to make excuses. I should just go out there and play. Pressure is a privilege. So I enjoy being counted on and doing that, and I just think I've been counted on since, I feel like, last year, to be totally honest, just in regard to being there for the rest of the guys. And now we're here in the Finals," Williams explained at Media Day Saturday. "So I don't really see it that much different. I’m never really like, oh, this is my third year. The only time I think about that is there's so much more I can do and how much stuff I can get better at. But I never really try and use it as this is my third year and use it as an excuse, you know what I mean."

So far in the NBA Finals, Williams is off to a slow-burning start. In Game 1, the Santa Clara product had a forgettable 17 points on 19 shots, with a team-high six assists and a steal. In Game 2, the production was more efficient, but only slightly, getting up to 35% from the floor while pouring in 19 points, five rebounds and as many assists.

That begs the question: why is this quack scribe so adamant that Williams is going to have a big Game 3? Fair question with a simple answer.

The 24-year-old has gone through this NBA Finals, making great decisions with the ball in his hands for the most part. If you paused the processing from Williams at the action point, you would more often than not say to yourself "good pass" or "good shot," and yet, the production hasn't followed through.

Take just Game 2 for example. Of his 14 shot attempts, the swingman only missed a physical contest at the rim, a pair of put back tries with no real chance, was the victim of a great defensive play by Pascal Siakam to get a block at the rim, four open shots that if they bounced in makes the box score prettier.

On top of those 14 shot attempts, Williams got to the line for nine free throws, showing a different level of force around the rim than in the series opener to force the Pacers into fouling him.

So long as the third-year swingman keeps up those hard-nose drives to the bucket, the odds suggest his jumper will begin to fall with more open looks and once you see a few go in, a flurry of buckets typically follows for a player like Williams.

The All-Star has more than delivered as a passer and on the defensive end, the scoring shows flashes of coming around. It is a matter of putting it all together for the remainder of this series, which throughout the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Williams' best game(s) have happened as the best-of-7 sets progressed.

Don't be shocked if Game 3 goes down as the "Dub" game in what would go a long ways in getting Oklahoma City a series-shifting win inside of a deafening Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Song of the Day: A change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke

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