Jaylen Williams takes aim at his ‘biggest critic’ after OKC’s win against Heat

Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Jaylen Williams’ return from wrist surgery is broken with ups and downs as the All-NBA forward enters the most challenging season of his career. Williams, who scored 26 and 18 points in the Thunder’s last two games, went 9-13 in Sunday’s 124-112 win over the Miami Heat.

Williams also saw the flak he received on social media for his inconsistent scoring, which he addressed during his postgame media availability following the Thunder’s win over the Heat on Sunday.

“I thought I was my own biggest critic. Maybe Twitter,” Williams said. “I’m just taking it day by day. Mark was good about just saying it’s going to take time. What I have is not like (something), 100 people running around with this injury, nor do they have that many people who have had to have surgery twice. So it’s one of those things that I can look at as a new opportunity to show people who eventually have to go through it that at some point it’s possible to be human.

“So that’s how I looked at it. Like all things, it takes time. But I’ll figure it out. I’ll be able to get my head around it and get everything else going.”

Williams also finished with four rebounds, four assists and two steals in the Thunder’s 12-point win against the Heat.

“I feel like I can do a lot of things on the field. I can still score, obviously, as we’ve seen throughout this period,” Williams added. “I’m not too worried about it or hyper-fixated on it. I’ve just got to let it do its thing and carry on doing what I normally do.”

Williams shot over 50 percent in the last two games. He is shooting 52.4 percent in January, while averaging 18.7 points, 5.8 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 0.8 steals in the first six games of 2026.

Jaylen Williams reveals ‘frustrating’ process since wrist surgery

After leading the Thunder to a 21-point win against the Grizzlies, Jaylen Williams expressed frustration with the lengthy recovery process from two surgeries to repair torn ligaments in his right wrist. from the very beginning, Williams has preached patience since his season debuta message that still stands 21 games into the 2025-26 campaign.

“It’s awful — it’s a very tedious process,” Williams said. “Nobody’s going to be more frustrated than me when the shots are short, when they’re not, but it’s just one of those things that I’ve learned over the course of the game. And it’s not like I’m on a bad team, where I come in and take 40 shots, and I take it that way. Again, this injury is not something you can get and have good hands.

“It’s been a year or a year and a half, and having the summer to really figure it out, where it’s really going to get back to normal. It’s just one of those things that you just figure out in the game, and I’m going to be able to be effective in other ways and not focus on that. That’s my biggest thing; there’s so many other things that I can do other than score and impact the defense,” William.

The Thunder will look to extend their three-game winning streak against the Spurs on Tuesday.