For the first time all season, the OKC Thunder have now found themselves on the losing end of a game on two straight occasions, as they fell to the Spurs on Tuesday night by a final score of 110-104.
Despite the clear size advantage San Antonio had, Oklahoma City managed to keep things close up until the final minutes of regulation in game two of the Emirates NBA Cup, cutting their deficit to within just six points with under a minute left to play.
Unfortunately, however, the comeback bid fell short of being successful, and, during his postgame press conference, Jalen Williams seemed to suggest what he believes is the reason why.
Jalen Williams outwardly laughs at free throw disparity for OKC Thunder
Looking at the game's box score while sitting at the podium and talking to members of the media, Williams was assessing what he believes went wrong for the Thunder on the night, specifically pointing out areas of the game he feels he could have done better in.
Highlighting his off shooting night, particularly from downtown where he went 0-6, J-Dub couldn't help but laugh out loud about the ongoing free throw disparity OKC has been seeing so far this season.
"I didn't really shoot it great so I was just trying to do other stuff defensively. I couldn't get to the line... again," Williams said, capping it off by laughing seemingly out of annoyance.
On the night, the Thunder were sent to the free throw line for a total of seven attempts. To put this disparity into perspective, the Spurs shot 19 attempts from the charity stripe.
This lack of calls has been a constant throughout the 2024-25 season so far, as Oklahoma City currently ranks second to last in free throws per game with 19.1.
What makes these lack of charity stripe attempts all the more perplexing is the fact that the Thunder are, in fact, quite active in low-post presence and drive attempts.
They shoot the 12-most shots at the rim with 30.3 per game, drive at the highest rate in the entire association, and fall into the top 10 in shot attempts in such sets.
Perhaps the ball club will see an uptick in this department once menacing bigs like Isaiah Hartenstein make their way back into the lineup (has been sidelined since the preseason with a fractured hand), but, considering they previously ranked just 17 in free throw attempts during their top-seeded 2023-24 campaign, it seems the association has had an ongoing trend of limiting OKC's foul line activity.
Fortunately, Jalen Williams, coach Daigneault, and the rest of the team are making their frustrations known. Hopefully, they can eventually get their message across somehow!