Jalen Williams has upped his scoring total in each of the first five games of this year’s NBA Finals.
The 24-year-old Oklahoma City Thunder wing starred Monday with 40 points in a triumphant, series-tilting Game 5 win over the Indiana Pacers.
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Williams doesn’t always take center stage, though. In fact, the first-time NBA All-Star is often second in command, behind league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Together, they’ve combined for a whopping 291 points in the Finals.
Here are the only tandems to score more more points through five Finals games, according to ESPN Research: the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in 1993, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in 2017 and the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant in 2017.
That’s legendary company, and Williams is drawing comparisons to one member of that decorated group in particular.
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Pippen, Jordan’s Hall of Fame sidekick during a six-championship run in the ’90s, told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that he sees a lot of himself in Williams.
“I don’t even want to put a cap on him to say that he’s going to be me,” Pippen said, via ESPN. “I see him being greater, if I can say that. Just because of where the game is today. They have offensive freedom. We didn’t have that. We mostly ran out of a system. These guys have the freedom to shoot 3-balls and things of that nature. Players that are playing in today’s game have a chance to be better than players in the past because of the ability to shoot the ball.”
Pippen added, via ESPN: “If this kid continues to shoot the 3-ball the way that he shoots it, I’m not going to sit here and argue with nobody and say that you can compare us. Because you can’t. He wins.”
Williams is a 38.2% career 3-point shooter, and he’s coming off a prolific Game 5 performance, in which he went 3 for 5 from deep. Pippen, meanwhile, shot just 32.6% from long range during his 17-season career and didn’t have a season with 100-plus 3s until he was 29 — Williams already has two of those in his first three years in the league.
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But the parallels between the versatile playmakers are mostly uncanny, as depicted by MacMahon in his feature.
Both unheralded high school prospects who blossomed at mid-majors — physically with growth spurts and on the court in production — Pippen and Williams seemingly came out of nowhere and then broke out in the NBA.
Pippen played at Central Arkansas. Williams played at Santa Clara. They each maintained their guard skills while adding more height and ultimately landing in the first round of their respective drafts, separated by 35 years.
“He is pretty special,” Pippen said of Williams, via ESPN. “I see a guy rising to be one of the top players in this league. He’s definitely a player that is capable of being able to lead that franchise to multiple championships — him and Shai, of course.”
The Thunder, led by their MVP and Pippen-like-sidekick, could clinch the first of those championships Thursday night against the Indiana Pacers.
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