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There's truly nothing better than March basketball. In college, 68 teams duke it out against powerhouses like Duke for a national championship tournament. In the NBA, teams slam their foot through the gas pedal like a cartoon character in a race to the bottom for lottery odds.
The Philadelphia 76ers have been pros at it. When the average fan thinks of tanking, they think of "The Process" Sixers. After Joel Embiid was ruled out for the remainder of an injury-plagued season, they pivoted to keeping their 2025 top-six protected first-round pick.
The Oklahoma City Thunder obliged by that. Despite several starters out, Chet Holmgren and the bench lineup blew out the Sixers in a 133-100 win that saw OKC led by as many as 41 points. Jaylin Williams recorded his second career triple-double of 19 points, 17 rebounds and 11 assists.
The points and boards were a career-best. Williams logged his 10th assist when he found Adam Flagler for a 3-pointer. Here's what the Thunder said about the locker room favorite's career night:
Mark Daigneault
"Every single guy on the team could probably argue their role could be wider or bigger but they're willing to sacrifice that in commitment to the team and that's what makes the team special and good. Williams in particular is impressive. Regardless of what his role is, which is fluid every night, he's always inside the team. Which does not impact his energy, does not impact his positivity. He's always connected to the guys. He's never in his feelings over anything. I talk about his leadership, that is leadership in a nutshell."
Jaylin Williams
"We're so connected as a team. Y'all see what we do, how we celebrate each other, how we joke around and post TikToks, post on IG, post pictures people don't see normally. Y'all see those type of things but don't really see how close we are as a team. After practice, when we sit in our locker room for 45 minutes just talking about trending things that's going on. On the plane, when we're playing cards or playing Uno or something. Joking around about random stuff or we're talking about relationships. We actually built the connection of friendship and brothers. We might put on a jersey and it might make us teammates, but at the end of the day, we're all friends and brothers and we love celebrating each other with our success."
Aaron Wiggins
"He's just a character both on and off the court. His personality is kinda contagious. He always just kinda has a certain energy about himself that just pours into the team just causes good feelings day in and day out. To see his success kinda continue at the level that it is, guys are excited for him."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Here's what Thunder said about Jaylin Williams' 2nd triple-double
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