Stephen A. CALLS OUT Jalen Williams after Game 6 loss vs. Nuggets 🗣️ ‘UNACCEPTABLE!’ | First Take

Stephen A. CALLS OUT Jalen Williams after Game 6 loss vs. Nuggets 🗣️ ‘UNACCEPTABLE!’ | First Take

other NBA playoffs teams. Last night in the West, the Denver Nuggets pushed their series against the Thunder to a very familiar place. They pushed it to a game seven. Nicole Yic was two assist shy assists shy of a triple double. The sick Jamal Murray put in 25. That ultimately helped Denver beat Oklahoma City 119 107. Game seven will be in OKC on Sunday, giving the Nuggets a much needed two-day break. Here’s Jokic on the big win last night. It was a collective effort. I think uh we were I think our defense were really supposed to be you know I think holding that I think the whole series I think we are holding that team and we were around 100 510 points I think that’s really good for us all except the first game they really they score 150 whatever so it was it was an interesting game and uh I’m just glad that they won it just sort of the mentality how important is that approach going into game seven in front of the home crowd? Yeah, um do or die. It’s what you live for. It’s what you worked your whole life for. It’s either your dream continues or your dream ends. Um so you lay it all out there on the floor and live with the results. But um yeah, I’m excited for the opportunity for sure. Annie should be excited that it’s in Oklahoma City. None the fact. Uh the Nuggets fired their coach with a week left in the regular season. Uh are we more impressed that Denver at this point pushed the best team in the NBA to seven games? Wendy, I’m going to you or that OKC failed to close them out. Well, so this this game was so much about Denver fin they like crawling through the desert Joic trying to get some help from somebody else than the starters. And one of the reasons why they let Calvin Booth go in addition to the head coach was that they felt like he didn’t do a good enough job building out this bench. Look what happened in this game. A bench player, Julian Strather, comes off and scores 15 points and it makes all the difference in the world. All of a sudden, Denver looks like a completely different team. He had scored 17 points the whole playoffs. He scores 15 points off the bench in this game. If Denver can get any sort of help for Jokic, they’re winning. They’ll probably win in the next round if they can get help like this. Problem is, we can’t rely on it. It was great for Julian Strather. I love seeing him. I love seeing him celebrate. I have no idea whether he’s going to be able to do it again in game seven. Two important things, though. won. Denver’s played seven games in 13 days. It’s been a brutal stretch of games. They go to seven against the Clippers. They go seven again here. They get two days off here. You saw David Adelman last night saying, “Everybody don’t come anywhere near this building. Totally recharge tomorrow. We need this in the worst way.” Second thing is right at the end of this game when it was all in hand, Aaron Gordon tweaked his left hamstring. Yep. That is a big development because they can’t afford him not being 100%. No way. He said after the game he was feeling it and he was going to get treatment. This didn’t look like a serious. He was able to continue in the game. But that extra day could be huge in seeing what he could bring. That’s to me is the biggest piece of information. This isn’t about like a gut check. This isn’t about who’s ready for what. What’s Aaron Gordon’s health going to be on Sunday afternoon. And then the other thing I’m going to say is Jaylen Williams, who is an all-star, who is going to be an allNBA player probably, who is about to get a massive contract again. second consecutive playoff season. He’s got to deliver. Got to deliver. What did I say coming into the series? What did I say coming into the playoffs? What if I was going to question about Okay, say number two option. Go ahead, Shane. You know, I absolutely agree. You know, uh the importance of Aaron Gordon, just look no further than the twoame winners, the way the variety that he did it. Uh buzzer beater talking about hamstring above the rim, knocking it down, you know, with a dunk, but then also the three, you know, on the Thunder home court. So, like that’s impactful. That’s pivotal. But like JDub, that has been the biggest question. We know that Shay and you heard him on the stand. He’s always cool, calm, collected. We say Shea Butter because he’s so smooth, right? You saw the Nuggets treat game six like game seven because it essentially was it was win or go home, right? Shay and the Thunder when they go back home, they’re going to have to have that type of energy, that type of sense of urgency. I think the Nuggets are capable, but I do give the edge to Oklahoma City just because we have not yet seen, I guess you can say, a signature MVP performance from either star. Even though the numbers are bonkers, I have the numbers here. I think Shay Gilis Alexander is averaging 297 and seven and Joic like nearly 30, you know, 15 and six. Like it’s wild what you think they’re able to do. But now at home, this is a team where role players play better at home and JDub has to emerge. I think he’s going to look motivated coming off of, you know, six points like a career playoff low aggressive like the pieces are coming together. This is the youngest team in basketball learning on the fly, but they have a tall task in Yokic. I picked OKC to win this series in seven games before it started. I’m sticking with that pick and I feel even more comfortable about it when I watch Jokic walk off the court last night and wave goodbye to Denver’s fans as if he wouldn’t be back cuz that’s what I’m thinking. He ain’t going to be back this year. Having said that, I don’t dismiss nor underestimate Denver from the standpoint understand that Jamal Murray in game sevens averages 27 24 games, shoots 93% from the free throw line. brother don’t miss free throws when it counts. They played a lot of games and he shows and he shows up and they play game sevens. This is not foreign territory for him. Aaron Gordon is a big deal. No way they’re winning if he’s hobbled. They’re not beating Oklahoma City. I think if he’s healthy, they’re still not going to beat him. Okay, Joic is Joic. No matter him waving goodbye, he’s still going to wave hello to the OKC fans cuz he going to show up for a game seven. No doubt about that. And I love the fact that there’s a two-day break because you’re giving them rest because you don’t want fatigue being any kind of excuse for a game seven. So, I love that from a scheduling perspective. Let me get back to Jay Williams and she Butter. Shea Butter, I believe, is the modernday elevated version of the Iceman, George Gerin. Special. Okay, make no mistake about it. Without the finger rolls, he’s just special. But game sevens ain’t for smoothness. True. Game game sevens is for intensity. Game sevens is for urgency and I need to see that from Oklahoma City to my man Jaylen Williams. Never met him. I am a fan of this brother. I think this brother’s a future star in the league. He’s got a sensational game. I really I don’t know whether it’s a sports psychologist or anything like that. My brother, you need to go see somebody, you know, to find out what the hell goes on with you when the playoffs arrive. I’m looking at these numbers here. He’s averaging 16 and a half points and 34% shooting. That’s not great by any stretch of the imagination, particularly considering he averaged nearly 22 on 48% shooting during the regular season. But if you look at his numbers, I mean, I’m looking at him in game six last night. Six points, three or 16 shooting, 19%. Really? Really? That’s what you break in a game six. It’s unacceptable. I’m looking at him through the series. Five for 20, five for 14, two for 13, three for 16. It’s unacceptable. You need more from your secondary star. and he is a bonafide secondary star option who is not playing like it. So on national television, he needs to hear in front of your hometown fans for a game seven, you left Shay hanging last year against Dallas. Don’t do it again. It’s time for Jaylen Williams. I They showed, you know, they show pictures of him, show pictures of their parents and all this. Yeah, you got the support and the love. You deserve it because you can ball. You are not a scrub. Nobody is asking you to do something you can’t do. We’re asking you to show the same skill set you do in the regular season. Bring it to the postseason. It is time because if they to lose, y’all know who I’m going to look at. Mr. Sam Prey. I’m going to look at the executive of the year. Phenomenal executive in terms of acrewing talent. I am not going to ignore the fact Jay, he knows this because I’ve said it many times. He has been running the basketball franchise for 17 years and doesn’t have one championship to show for it. Always be closing. Alec Bowwin, Glen, Larry, Gro, Glenn Ross. Always be closing. He’s never closed. Send him drawing with that. There’s all the pressure is on OKC. They’ve been the best team in the NBA for most of the season. Denver, like we said, Yeah. Denver, like we said, fired their coach like a week before the playoffs started. And here they are in this situation, game seven in OKC.

Brian Windhorst, Stephen A. Smith and Chiney Ogwumike join Shae Cornette on First Take to react to the Denver Nuggets forcing a Game 7 vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs.

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