After the Oklahoma City Thunder lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first game of the Western Conference semifinals, Jalen Williams had a funny moment.
The Thunder collapsed after once holding a 14-point lead over the Nuggets in Game 1 of the series on Monday night. They made too many early fouls and ended up losing the match despite leading by nine points with three minutes remaining. Even though Oklahoma City is expected to bounce back after choking the series opener, it was a particularly rough performance for Williams.
He was 5-of-20 (25.0 percent) from the floor in 37 minutes of action during OKC’s loss.
JDub on how the Thunder can clean up their rebounding.
“Boxout. Go up with two hands and then grab that. Don’t stand and watch. Boxout again and then you go up again and you jump make sure to grab it.” -Jalen Williams pic.twitter.com/L173mycu7r
— Michael Martin (@MichaelOnSports) May 6, 2025
Here is what Williams said when asked about how the Thunder can improve on the glass moving forward after they were out-rebounded, 63-43, by the Nuggets:
“Box out. Go up with two hands and grab that. Don’t stand and watch. Box out again. And when you go up and you jump, you grab that.”
If that seems familiar, it is because it is eerily similar to when NBA forward Taurean Prince was asked a similar question back when he played college basketball for Baylor.
Here is what Prince said during a March Madness press conference back in 2016:
“You go up and grab the ball off the rim when it comes off. Then you grab it with two hands and you come down with it. And that’s considered a rebound. So they got more of those than we did.”
While the words were not verbatim, the vibes (and even the look) were nearly exactly the same:
the eye angle
the hand positioning
even the slight lip bite during the pause
absolutely INCREDIBLE commitment to the bit
phenomenal stuff
a student of the game
👏👏👏 https://t.co/9mJTbxP1fUpic.twitter.com/Jt0tjad6Oy— Todd Whitehead (@CrumpledJumper) May 6, 2025
Both players advised to grab boards with two hands and nearly had identical eye positioning as they made their descriptions, albeit Williams’ came nearly one decade later.
This was genuinely funny stuff from Williams, who had a rough performance in Game 1 but will look to bounce back as the series continues for a chance to make the Western Conference Finals.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Jalen Williams hysterically recreated a hilarious March Madness moment after Thunder loss