Thunder’s Jaylin Williams gets punished for sportsmanship on strange turnover vs. Suns appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It’s a sad time for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who just saw Jalen Williams go down with a significant lower leg injury. Cason Wallace is also set to miss significant time with a shoulder injury.
But amid their injury concerns, they did have a somewhat lighthearted play in their next game against the Phoenix Suns on Monday. It involved their other J. Williams, Jaylin, who was penalized for an unusual turnover while trying to help a teammate up.
Early in the second quarter, Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein both went up for a rebound. Williams ended up with the ball as Hartenstein fell to the floor.
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Oh no, Jaylin Williams 😭 pic.twitter.com/swHGiAazuR
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With the Suns opting not to pressure, Williams decided to help Hartenstein up off the floor. But that move was quickly met with a whistle by the referees.
Unbeknownst to Williams, Hartenstein was still sitting out of bounds. So by helping him up while in possession of the ball, Williams was also deemed out of bounds.
Both Jaylin Williams and Hartenstein shared looks of confusion upon hearing the whistle. But once Williams realized what had happened, he could only smile at Hartenstein in acknowledgement of his error.
In hindsight, Williams probably should have passed the ball or dribbled the ball up himself instead of stopping to help Hartenstein up. But he just had to be such a good teammate, which ended up getting him punished.
In fairness to Williams, it was hard to see Hartenstein was out of bounds at the moment. Moreover, it’s not a play that happens all that often. But if it does somehow come up again, hopefully Williams will have learned his lesson and not help his teammate out.
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