The OKC Thunder were outmatched and overpowered by the Milwaukee Bucks during Tuesday's Emirates NBA Cup Final, as they were downed by a final score of 97-81.
Coming away from the contest, it's evident that many things wound up leading to Oklahoma City's ultimate downfall: Rebounding follies, disappearing second-unit offense, putrid overall shooting efficiency, etc.
However, regardless of their ability to pinpoint the factors that paved the way to their demise and, ultimately, learn from them as the regular season carries on, the sting of defeat is still rather sharp for the Thunder and, more specifically, for Jalen Williams, who provided an honest assessment of his post-Cup feelings during his media availability after the contest.
Jalen Williams reveals emotions on Thunder losing to Bucks in NBA Cup
' disappointed. Obviously there's a lot of money we're playing for. You saw the way were celebrating, they were happy. When there's money on the line everybody's going to play hard. disappointed... There is a competitive advantage. If I'm going to play a game, I'm going to play hard. I'm not going to change how I play because of the circumstances. I want to win at the end of the day and I think I speak for the whole team," Williams said.
While the Thunder certainly came into the contest with a clear desire to put their best foot forward, after 48 minutes of action it appears they may have left their best feet in the locker room.
Though a 16-point loss may be quite devastating to stomach on its own, for those who watched the game it seemed as though things were even more out of reach than this.
In the first half, Oklahoma City shot a disastrous 1-for-17 from beyond the arc, equating to a shooting percentage of just 5.9. With this, along with the fact that Milwaukee shot 38.9 percent on their 18 attempts from deep, it was truly astonishing that J-Dub and company found themselves trailing by just one point heading into the break.
Milwaukee didn't allow things to remain close for much longer, however, as they hit the ground running in the third period, hitting four of their first six shot attempts and pushing their lead to double-digits in just about three minutes.
They never looked back from there, as the Bucks stayed in attack mode on offense while forcing the clearly discombobulated Thunder to continue hoisting up prayers from distance. Being they went just 4-for-15 from deep and shot a lowly 26.2 percent from the floor over the final two periods, it's clear this offensive strategy failed to produce any desirable results.
Now, as pointed out by Jalen Williams during his post-game presser, what's fortunate for the Thunder is that their lackluster performance won't have any impact on their individual numbers or record as a team, meaning they head back into regular season play still in ownership of the top-seed in the Western Conference standings at 20-5.
That said, their haphazard showing in this title game has already taken some toll on their status as legitimate NBA Finals threats among some high-profile media members and analysts, with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith suggesting that he may have to "re-think" who his top pick should be when it comes to NBA Championship projections.
With the second annual NBA Cup officially in the rearview, it's time for OKC to look into shoring up some of their clear on-court weaknesses and, in turn, strengthen their standing as a legitimate title-threat in 2024-25.
Hopefully this embarrassing loss against Milwaukee will help motivate them moving forward.