Jaylin Williams walked slowly down the Paycom Center tunnel he’d run up victoriously less than an hour earlier.
The post-game show wanted him.
“My face hurts,” the Thunder big man told a team PR person, “and you’re making me talk.”
Well, yes, when you change the tenor of a playoff game — and maybe the entire series — you’re going to have to talk about your performance even if you took a forearm to the face and got a bloody nose.
On a night the Thunder struck back after a series-opening disaster and evened this Western Conference semifinal with a 149-106 beatdown of the Nuggets, there were lots of reasons why Oklahoma City dominated. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring 34 points on only 13 shots. Jalen Williams attacking the basket at every opportunity. The Thunder pushing the tempo and winning the fastbreak-points battle.
But nothing was more impactful than the way Jaylin Williams defended Nikola Jokic.
“Everybody knows what a player Jokic is,” Williams told The Oklahoman. “You know, he’s a force. So when the ball is in his hands, it’s never one guy against him. It’s always five guys against him, and everybody did a great job.”
That’s true, but Williams is being modest. The way he did his job against Jokic set a tone that turned a good start into a landslide.
Williams checked in less than five minutes into the game, which was unexpected. He played less than 3 minutes in Game 1, and most of that time came because Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren got into foul trouble.
“I don’t think he thought he played great last game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I can’t read his mind, but I’ve been around him long enough to know. I think he was pissed with how he played individually, and I knew he’d be ready.”
Was he ever.
The first defensive possession after Williams checked in, Jokic got the ball and tried to back down Williams. One bump. Then another. And another.
Williams didn’t give.
With every bump Williams absorbed, the Paycom Center crowd roared a little louder. And when Jokic put up a shot that bounded off the rim, the Thunder faithful exploded.
The next possession was more of the same, Jokic getting the ball, Williams forcing a miss.
The next possession, darned if Williams didn’t do it again.
“My mentality when I come in the game is just try to make the game as hard as I can for him,” Williams said. “I know he’s going to play way more minutes than I am, so just try to make the minutes while I’m in the game as tough as I can.”
Safe to say, he succeeded.
While Williams was on the court during that first-quarter stretch, Jokic went 1 of 4 (and his one make came against a zone and not Williams) and had one turnover. What’s more, the Thunder’s lead ballooned from six points to 21 points.
“He fronted him,” Denver coach David Adelman said of Williams’ approach to Jokic. “He got underneath his legs.”
He bumped. He bodied. He bullied.
Wait, Jokic got bullied?
Usually, he’s the one doing the bullying, and of course, the big fella did plenty of it Wednesday. For as masterfully skilled as Jokic is — and it’s entirely possible no basketball player of his size has ever been more skilled — one of his superpowers is his physicality. He leans. He pushes. He rams.
He uses all 6-feet-11 and 284 pounds of his body to wear defenders slick.
Even though Williams gave up two inches and more than 40 pounds, he didn’t give in to Jokic.
“Just be physical, be competitive and just try to muck the game up,” Williams said of his approach. “I know he loves to get to his spots. He’s a smart player. He reads defenses. He can score. He can pass. He can do all that. And really, just my mentality coming into the game is to try to make it as tough as I can.
“You’re not going to stop him and keep him to zero, and you’re not going to keep him from passing the ball. But as long as I can try to make those things as hard as I could, that’s a win for me.”
Williams had lots of wins on Wednesday. Even though he only scored three points, grabbed three rebounds and dished three assists, his don’t-back-down approach became contagious.
“Him coming in, setting that energy, setting that tone, I think was amazing for us,” Hartenstein said. “Especially not playing that much in the series before now, to come in, to play such a big game for us I think was huge.
“He was big tonight.”
Williams, of course, didn’t have all the responsibility for Jokic. The truth is, part of the Thunder’s success was in the way it sent all three of its bigs at him. Daigneault rolled fresh bodies onto the court every few minutes.
Williams checked in with 7:36 left in the first quarter, and Hartenstein checked out, but about four minutes later, Williams and Holmgren exited while Hartenstein returned. At the start of the second quarter, Hartenstein was replaced by Holmgren, and less than five minutes later, the two swapped out.
The substitutions continued like that for the rest of the game.
The result: Two nights after scoring 42 points, Jokic scored only 17 on 6-of-16 shooting, went to the free-throw line just five times and had as many turnovers as made baskets.
It was a team effort against Jokic, and while the Thunder’s three bigs all defend Jokic differently, Hartenstein and Holmgren seemed to take energy from Williams.
“What he does is really impressive just because he has to be ready for anything and everything either on a moment’s notice or without any notice at all,” Holmgren said. “He’s always ready. Coach can always know what to expect out of him coming into the game, and he does a really good job of doing what he does. Makes big shots. Makes big plays on defense. Makes the right reads.
“Can’t speak enough about what he does for us.”
For Williams’ part, even with a sore face, he still managed to smile about what the Thunder did and the part he had in it.
What made him proudest?
“Just being ready,” he said. “Just being ready for the moment. I had no idea when I was going into the game. I just tried to stay ready.”
He was more than ready. He was a game-changer.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
Game 3: Thunder at Nuggets
TIPOFF: 9 p.m. Friday at Ball Arena in Denver (ESPN)
