In their first lick of regular season action post-NBA Cup play, the OKC Thunder returned to their winning ways Thursday night as they took down the Magic on the road by a final score of 105-99.
Considering the stark shift in mentality for Oklahoma City (going from title-game play to merely game 26 of 82 in just a matter of days) coupled with the fact that Orlando has proven to be one of the best ball clubs in the Eastern Conference, coming in one could have easily projected this contest would be a challenging bout until the bitter end.
Ultimately, this was proven to be the case through 48 minutes of play, though some individuals seemed to face more obstacles during the contest than others.
Jalen Williams, in particular, dealt with some serious adversity on the night, particularly when it came to the lack of attention he received from the officiating crew.
Despite driving on 60.0 percent of his field goal attempts and, as coach Mark Daigneault put it post-game, living in the "throat of the defense," the 23-year-old saw zero trips to the free throw line.
While such a statistic may seem quite astonishing, for Williams it's simply the norm in 2024-25 as he finds himself attempting a criminally low 3.3 foul shots a game despite ranking within the top-30 in the NBA in drives.
Though J-Dub admitted during his post-game presser that the lack of whistles called his way has been "frustrating" to deal with, his Thunder running mate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander views this adversity as a test of mental fortitude and revealed the advice he's been giving to the forward to help him cope.
Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on lack of free throw visits
"Play through it. I tell him to not anticipate contact, just play. If you get fouled you get fouled. Ultimately you can't control the refs. You never can. Some nights I'm going to shoot 15 free throws and some nights I'm going to shoot two and I drive the same amount every night... At the end of the day you have to control what you can control out there and not worry about that," Gilgeous-Alexander said.
Interestingly enough, SGA has been no stranger to this pattern of lacking free throw visits in 2024-25.
Through the first seven games of the season, the Thunder superstar found himself driving to the basket at the fourth-highest rate though ranked in at a lowly 27 in free throw attempts during this span.
Fortunately, as the campaign has progressed, visitations to the charity stripe have seen a positive regression (averages the third-most attempt from the line since November 5), and deservedly so.
Hopefully, an uptick in foul shots attempted will also end up being seen within Jalen Williams' stat sheet, though, as Gilgeous-Alexander alluded to, banking on this to happen is not recommended.
Focusing on what he can personally control is the key to overcoming this obvious disparity. Everything else is simply out of their hands.