Jalen Williams had a front-row seat for one of the biggest breakout runs of the 2026 NBA playoffs, and he made the most of it from the sideline.
While Williams was dealing with a fourth hamstring strain in five months, the Oklahoma City Thunder had to lean on other players. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did what he does - “He's a walking 30-point bucket” - but the series turned when Ajay Mitchell seized the moment against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Mitchell went from two-way rookie to headline name in a hurry, and his best stretch came in a Round 2 sweep that ended the Lakers’ season. Across four games, he averaged 22.5 points on 56.3% shooting, along with six assists and three rebounds. He also made life miserable for Austin Reaves, who had the worst postseason series of his career, finishing at 20.8 points on 42.6% shooting with 5.5 turnovers.
The finishing touch came in Game 4, when Mitchell scored 28 efficient points to close out the sweep. In the process, he ended a chapter that had plenty of drama for Lakers fans, especially with LeBron James’ era with the team coming to a close.
Williams, sidelined but locked in, said he spent the series acting like a Thunder fan and following every swing online.
"I don’t want to say I was happy to be out. But that was a fun series to be out for," Williams said on 'The Old Man and the Three' podcast alongside Mitchell. "Because every time you had a good game, I would go straight to Twitter."
That kind of reaction made sense given the size of the Lakers’ following. As Williams put it, the noise around that fanbase was impossible to miss, especially when OKC was dismantling them at every turn.
The series also carried a painful subplot for Los Angeles: the endless anticipation around Luka Doncic’s possible return that never came. Instead, he was stuck watching from the sideline while recovering from the severe season-ending hamstring strain he suffered in OKC in Apr. 2026.
Still, the bigger picture for the Thunder is less about the jokes and more about Williams’ health. If OKC is going to chase a 2026-27 NBA title, his availability remains one of the biggest questions.
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