Jaylen Williams is full Captain Obvious on what makes the Spurs tough to beat

OKLAHOMA CITY — For Oklahoma City Thunder All-star forward Jalen Williams, San Antonio Spurs All-Star center Victor Wembanyama’s impact in the 117-102 loss on Christmas Day was evident, according to his postgame press conference. Before the All-Stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander named the Spurs the better team than the Thunder, Williams discussed Wembanyama’s disruptive approach as what makes San Antonio so difficult to beat.

However, Williams lashed out at the crowd of Spurs marksmen outside Wembanyama who were in attendance felt in defenseaccording to Williams.

“There’s one guy on their team who’s 7-foot-5 and takes up a lot of space on the court,” Williams said. “So that’s it, defensively and offensively, they play as a team.”

For Williams, the lack of a course correction proved the Thunder’s second-half slump, as the Spurs outscored Oklahoma City 26-19 in the third quarter, leaving Williams and the Thunder to come from behind to erase a double-digit deficit that grew to 17 points in the final frame.

“When you want a really bad game, we kind of lost track of it, and then every play we tried to go down was a Hail Mary instead of sticking to the principles around our offense,” Williams added. “Every time we went through our progressions, we had really good looks. There was probably a stretch where we missed five or six wide-open threes. And I think missing those led to us not playing defense on the other end, and it kind of went down from there.”

Jalen Williams finished with 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting, including 1-for-2 from deep, six assists and two steals. Shai Giljus-Alexander’s 22 points led five Thunder players in double figures, including Isaiah Hartenstein, who finished with a double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds), and Alex Caruso’s dozen points on 3-for-13 shooting led the bench.

Maybe some home cooking will help the Thunder in the midst of a two-game skid and a four-game skid that began with a Christmas showdown with the Spurs.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander addresses the Thunder’s loss to the Spurs

Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is responsible for the third victory of the Spurs against the defending champions, the second in three days, by calling them better. For Gilgeous-Alexander, losing to the team three times in two weeks means something, as he explained to reporters during his postgame media availability.

“We have to get better as a group. You can’t lose to a team three times in a row in a short period of time without them being better than you,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We have to be better. Look in the mirror, and that’s everyone from top to bottom, if we want to achieve our ultimate goal.”

The Thunder fell to 26-5.