7th May, 2025 was an odd evening. We finally saw Nikola Jokic have an off-game. And guess what ended up happening- a 149-106 blowout by the hands of the Thunder. Any surprise? They’ve been reliant on his offensive prowess forever now. But this wasn’t due to the Joker just not turning up- it was due to the Thunder finding the answer to all their problems presented to them by the Serbian. And that ended up being their 11th man- Jaylin Williams.

Jokic ended up going 17/8/6, on a night where he had to put his foot down against his MVP rival, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But then came Jaylin Williams. No one, not even the Joker himself, expected him to be the fire heating the oil to the max. In went a little Jokic-sized Nugget, and he got deep fried. The Serbian went 6-for-16 from the field – which is a huge dropoff from his season average of 57.6%.

“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,” said Williams to the Oklahoman. He knew the task in front of him. And after a forgettable Game 1, J-Will was going into this game with a chip on his shoulder. Any guesses to what happened next?

Just minutes into Game 2, the Thunder surprised everyone by checking in Williams early. He played a wasteful 3 minutes in game 1, when Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren hit foul trouble. So throwing him in the deep end was a bit questionable from Mark Daigneault’s side. Tasked with defending Nikola Jokic, Williams stood his ground through relentless post bumps, forcing Jokic into miss after miss. Each stop sent the Paycom Center into a frenzy, turning a brief spell off the bench into a showcase of fearless interior defense. Not just from the Cityzens, he got all the praise from ESPN analysts too.

“Well, I think Jaylin Williams, J-Will, the third big, served that purpose in game two… Like the fifth foul the Joker got- what happened? He got upset because J-Will is getting into him. And look, and Aaron Gordon kind of spoke on this. Like there were certainly instances of Joker getting called for the second foul. The first foul not being whistled. And this was one of those cases where even though I was surprised because they reviewed this… So I think they’ve got a guy who they can come in and do that. And then like for a 10th man. This or 10th or 11th man, whatever the hell you want to say. Jaylin Williams is in the Thunder’s rotation- he’s really good. He’s a really good backup big every time,” said Tim Bontemps on Brian Windhorst & the Hoop Collective.

It’s safe to say that it’ll be a mammoth task to repeat this for the next 5 games. Maybe Daigneault’s got his secret recipe- deploying his three big men on the Joker like a freight train. But that isn’t the end of the story. Turns out that the Denver Nuggets have a lot more going on, especially with Russell Westbrook having to overcome some emotional drama to give the Mile High City the dub.

Russell Westbrook Booed at the Paycom Center

It’s been an emotional playoffs for Brodie. It’s kinda unfair that he was matched up with two of his former teams in the first two rounds itself, right? He fought battles on and off the court to bring Denver a 4-3 win over the Clippers. But the moment he stepped foot onto the Paycom Center- 6 years after leaving his legacy to join the Rockets- he realised how much he missed it. However, the same feelings weren’t felt by the OKC faithful.

That’s not the way to treat a man that’s arguably the best player to ever set foot in OKC colors right? At 2:15, Westbrook received a feed from Jokic and drained it, bringing the score to 19 points. After shooting the three, he celebrated with the traditional three-finger gesture, but OKC fans saw it as disrespectful. And they let him know. “Westbrook with the corner 3-pointer. The OKC crowd boo him for it. Wild stuff,” said Clemente Almanza on X. 

There’s a lot for the Nuggets to overcome tonight, On one hand, they have a Jaylin Williams problem to deal with. If the going gets tough for the Thunder, their HC won’t hesitate chucking him onto the court. What then? David Adelman and Nikola Jokic need a reprieve, and they need it now. But as for Russell Westbrook’s problem- he’ll get all the cheers, now that he’s got two games at the Ball Arena. Who do you think will come out on top?