All season long, the OKC Thunder have seemingly struggled to get into the good graces of the league's officiating crew.
Despite leading the NBA in drives to the basket per game and ranking within the top 12 in points in the paint, Oklahoma City shockingly stacks up with the second-lowest free-throw shooting rate at a mere 19.5 attempts per game.
In contrast, opposing teams are averaging the fourth-most free throw attempts at 25.2 per night.
This charity stripe disparity seemed to be on full display Thursday night against the Magic, as OKC was outshot 25-16 even with nearly half of their field goal attempts (41 of 83) coming either at the rim or inside the congested painted area.
Arguably the most impacted player from the contest's lack of trips to the foul line was star forward Jalen Williams, who saw 60.0 percent of his shot attempts come by way of drive yet registered a whopping zero free throws attempted.
With this shocking statistical eye sore, even the oft jovial, laissez-faire J-Dub couldn't help but comment on the lack of calls he received during the ball club's 105-99 win over the Magic, admitting that it's been "very frusturating" to deal with.
However, in classic Jalen Williams fashion, while he may be fed up with his lowly free throw attempts on the year, he still managed to find the silver lining during his postgame presser.
Thunder star Jalen Williams puts positive spin on lowly free throw rates
“It’s very frustrating. I also don’t let that affect the rest of my game. I think I average 21 with no free throws. It’s almost encouraging in a way," Williams said.
Williams would continue on to say that even though getting the whistle allows him to "boost my numbers" in his points per game averages, fortunately, he's "very good at a lot of other things" on the floor that he tends to lean into when calls are not going his way.
Against Orlando, these "other things" were displayed in the distribution department, as he wrapped up his 35 minutes of action with a game-high 7 assists to go along with his measly 11 points.
On the season as a whole, Williams finds himself averaging an astonishingly low 3.4 free throw attempts per game despite ranking in the top-30 in the league in drives a night.
Though the should-be All-Star may have managed to find a way to remain upbeat when discussing his lowly foul line excursions, the fanbase and, more vocally, coach Mark Daigneault himself have been and will continue to be up in arms about these lopsided numbers.