TORONTO — Jalen Williams raced to make Jontay Porter pay after he had turned the ball. Porter hadn’t even had time to compose himself.

The ball was forced into the official’s palm by Williams as he raced toward the baseline only thirty seconds into the second quarter on Friday. As Toronto’s defense was still assembling, Williams pushed the play to find Aaron Wiggins, who was on the move.

Williams’ enthusiasm and the vivacity of the five teams he played with early in the quarter ignited the Thunder’s 123-103 victory in Toronto. Porter and the Raptors barely had time to register what had hit them. After all, the Raptors controlled the first twelve minutes of the Thunder’s game. Less turnovers than OKC, with nine fastbreak points compared to their two. It resulted in a variety of slips. Crossmatching and mismatches. Using backdoors and high-low passes, the Raptors played with OKC.

The standard for what OKC ought to look like was established by Williams and the four players he hit the court with: Cason Wallace, Josh Giddey, Chet Holmgren, and Wiggins.

That bunch represented all the squad aimed to accomplish, even in a flawed game filled with errors, carelessness, and forced shots. It forced eight turnovers, creating its own fastbreaks (the Thunder didn’t force any fewer than seven in a quarter following the opening one). Williams scored an efficient 20 points (9 for 13) by flying to the rim with the kind of youthful legs and lively energy that he possessed. In the end, OKC forced 27 turnovers, a season record for Toronto.

The passing of the clock seemed to transfer any awkwardness or badly executed plays to Toronto. The Raptors discovered that this Oprah episode was the worst one yet. You consistently experience turnover. At least eight Raptors had it, and that was far more than the Thunder required to gain a lead and win.