Jaylen Williams prides himself on defense after returning from wrist injury

Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams made his season debut two days before Sunday’s 123-115 win against the Portland Blazers, and showed some rust on the defensive end of the floor. He finished with two blocks and one steal, playing without starter Isaiah Hartenstein in the Thunder lineup. Then Williams finished with three blocks in Sunday’s win at Portland.

After the game, Williams discussed how it was easier for him to re-adjust to the Thunder on defense rather than offense.

“It’s more about my effort, trying to give you more effort, but as far as pride, I’ll always have that chip on my shoulder, defensively. I think I’m one of the best defenders in the NBA, there’s only so much I can do,” Williams said. “As far as the pride, it doesn’t go away. I think it just keeps me going until I get back to, like, normal offensive stuff. Defense is also a lot of fun for me — I love playing defense.”

However, Jaylen Williams admits he and the Thunder could have done a better job of slowing Avdia with his 31-point performance.

“I wish I hadn’t fouled as much as a team, but it’s good to have games like that – they’re what prepare you for later in the season. So when you find a way to win, even through the ugly games, that’s a sign of a pretty good team. Obviously, this is my second game back, these are good games to play in, so I’d hate to go into this game. The flow and realize that was good.

“Obviously, we’ve got to keep them off the line, especially Avdia — he had about a hundred free throws today. So we’ve got to figure that out. But, again, just figuring out different ways to win — I think — was impressive tonight.”

Marc Daigneault on Thunder vs. Blazers topics

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault wouldn’t blame the officials for the Blazers, an incredible 37 free throw attempts. Instead, he urged his team to do a better job of limiting Danny Avdia from getting to the line 23 times.

“We can’t control the officiating and how the plays are called. So we control what we can,” Daigneault said. “There’s a lot in the game that we can control. I thought Avdija shot 23 free throws tonight, and whenever that happens, we’re going to look in the mirror first. That’s the reality. We could have done a lot better with him in executing our plan, putting him in a bigger crowd.

“He was on the island a lot of nights, especially in the first half, and you had three officials staring at him when that was the case.

The Thunder will face the Warriors on Tuesday.