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Thunder veteran ties career-high with standout defensive performance vs. Pelicans
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- Thunder veteran ties career-high with standout defensive performance vs. Pelicans
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Amid injuries to half of head coach Mark Daigneault's rotation, Oklahoma City Thunder center Jaylin Williams had a career night in Tuesday's 104-95 win against the New Orleans Pelicans . After the game clock expired, tempers flared between Lu Dort and Jeremiah Fears . Williams helped calm things down on a night where he finished with a career-high five blocks. It was a hectic ending to a three-game home stand.
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The Thunder finished 1-2 after a rare two consecutive losses to the Indiana Pacers and the Toronto Raptors . Without Jalen Williams , Isaiah Hartenstein , Alex Caruso , Ajay Mitchell , and Cason Wallace , Jaylin finished with 10 rebounds, five assists, and two points as he and Chet Holmgren (20 points) finished with a combined 24 rebounds, nine blocks, and eight assists.
After the game, Holmgren talked about how the Thunder's stifling defense helped limit the Pelicans' best scorers, such as Trey Murphy III , who started the game 0-for-7 and finished with 10 points on 3-for-20 attempts.
"First of all, credit to those guys who were putting their bodies in front of Zion, taking away the straight line ones to the cup. They're able to do that because I'm making sure that they know that I have their backs," Holmgren said. "I'm back there behind them, as well as everybody else on the floor. Just trying to do a good job of having everybody's back but not losing sight of kind of the whole floor, and giving up easy ones."
Zion Williamson led the Pelicans with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
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"I feel like we forced Zion into that four-to-eight-foot range, and he still made those shots," Holmgren added. "But good players are gonna make shots, but we couldn't give up layups, and dunks all night to everybody."
Jaylin Williams averaged 6.0 rebounds, 3.6 points, and 2.0 blocks in 23.3 minutes over the Thunder's three-game home stand. Tuesday's win against the Pelicans was his second consecutive start.
Aaron Wiggins sees 'opportunity' after Thunder losses
Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
Thunder guard Aaron Wiggins knows there are plenty of games left in the regular season. He reminded reporters of that fact following the defending champions' two consecutive losses at home, which hadn't happened since 2023. However, as Wiggins reminded everyone, the Thunder still hold the best record in the NBA, which reminds him of the regular season's big picture .
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"You can't get caught up in the moment or a small sample size of games that might not have gone your way," Wiggins said. "We're talking about two losses in a row, but we're 37-10 now. In that aspect, just understanding that we still have literally 40-50 games left. So, there's a lot of time that we have to get better.
"There's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to grow, and learn from our losses, and our wins. And we can't take last night's loss with us tomorrow into the game. So, we gotta make sure we move on, and just learn what we can, and be ready to go."
The Thunder improved to 38-10.
Related: Pelicans' Jeremiah Fears claps back at Lu Dort after scuffle
