Whereas everybody knew that Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton was coping with a major harm in the course of the 2025 NBA Finals, Thunder guard Jalen Williams was additionally taking part in by way of an especially painful harm that he had initially suffered months earlier.
Williams just lately revealed that he utterly tore the scapholunate ligament in his proper wrist in the course of the Thunder’s 125-112 win over the Phoenix Suns on April 9. Regardless of the harm and the immense ache that got here with it, Williams did not miss a single recreation throughout Oklahoma Metropolis’s profitable run by way of the playoffs that ended with a championship.
“I type of heard like a paper ripping noise,” Williams mentioned whereas recalling when the harm happened. “My hand is simply on fireplace, like the entire prime of my wrist is on fireplace.”
Williams, who mentioned that he just lately underwent surgical procedure on his proper wrist, mentioned that he had already been coping with a wrist sprain for almost all of the season. This harm, nevertheless, was not like any he had beforehand skilled.
Swelling, Williams mentioned, was one of many principal challenges related to the harm. The swelling of his complete proper hand compelled Williams to utterly alter his recreation from an offensive standpoint.
“I mainly modified my leap shot to shoot in a manner that required contact and solely used my fingertips in order that I would not need to observe by way of on a regular basis.”
Williams mentioned that he and the Thunder took full benefit of the break that occurred between the tip of the common season and the beginning of the postseason. Williams made the required modifications to his recreation, whereas the group’s medical employees went to work, too. Along with heavy taping and Ibuprofen, Williams began receiving cortisone and lidocaine pictures with a purpose to apply. Williams would proceed to obtain lidocaine pictures earlier than the beginning of every playoff recreation.
Whereas he is not evaluating himself to Kobe Bryant, Williams was knowledgeable at the moment that the previous Lakers nice had additionally performed by way of the harm. He was going to attempt to as nicely.
“I bought 28 or 29 pictures in my hand all through the playoffs,” he mentioned. “I simply thought, ‘that may’t be for nothing.’ That was my mentality.”
Whereas his wrist survived one setback in the course of the group’s first-round sweep of Memphis, Williams mentioned that the harm actually began to affect him in the course of the Thunder’s second-round collection with Denver, because the bodily play within the collection led to his lidocaine shot sporting off too quickly. Williams mentioned that his proper hand was “swollen for an excellent quantity of the Denver collection” whereas including {that a} play involving Nuggets ahead Aaron Gordon “utterly jacked up” his wrist for the ultimate 4 video games of the collection.
Oklahoma Metropolis’s medical group responded by giving Williams the lidocaine shot nearer to tip-off. Whereas that led to a extra painful first half, Williams mentioned that the shot would begin to kick in firstly of the second half whereas guaranteeing that it might be in higher form on the finish of the sport. The plan labored as Williams scored 24 factors on practically 59% capturing for the sector in Oklahoma Metropolis’s series-clinching win in Sport 7.
Williams mentioned that he was in a “actually good routine” coming into the Thunder’s Western Convention finals showdown with Minnesota. Issues went simply as clean in the course of the collection, which the Thunder gained in 5 video games.
“Simply bought fortunate with that collection,” he mentioned. “[The wrist] simply progressively bought worse, however I simply bought used to it, simply with the reps, how I wished to shoot, the day off. I simply found out a very good routine and how one can maintain my hand alive.”
The NBA Finals additionally went comparatively nicely. Whereas the harm continued to affect him, Williams nonetheless averaged 23.6 factors, 5 rebounds and three.7 assists for the collection. He got here up particularly huge in Sport 5, tallying 40 factors, 6 rebound and 4 assists in main the Thunder to a 3-2 collection lead. Williams then had 20 factors within the Thunder’s 103-91 title-clinching win in Sport 7.
“I did not shoot the best way I wished to all through any collection,” Williams mentioned, “which was a bit disappointing simply due to all of the work that I did up till the summer time and the way nicely I shot the ball in the course of the season. [It] type of went out the window simply because my dominant arduous was simply not what it was.”
Regardless of the harm, Williams’ postseason numbers have been largely on par with what he put up in the course of the common season. That, nevertheless, did not cease the skin criticism from followers and media members who had no concept what Williams was taking part in by way of.
“I did not need the media to know that I used to be coping with stuff as a result of I did not need different groups to know that my hand was jacked up,” he mentioned. “Whenever you’re taking part in within the playoffs, for essentially the most half, all people’s harm, and I simply did not need that to be an excuse on my efficiency or one thing that detoured me from the tip objective.”
