Arkansas Razorbacks Alumni Isaiah Joe, Jaylin Williams and Daniel Gafford will play in the Western Conference Semi-Finals beginning Tuesday night, May 7th in Oklahoma City. The series is do or die and features some of the greatest basketball talent on the planet. Two MVP nominated stars will square off in Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but the Arkansas angle will feature two Arkansas natives, former Razorbacks, and current NBA post players going toe-to-toe in Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Gafford of the Dallas Mavericks.
Arkansas Alumnus Jaylin Williams Meshes with OKC Stars
NBA playoff games often make for great theater. The setting for this production involves the number one seed in the Western Conference – the Oklahoma City Thunder – with home-court advantage in the series against the upwardly mobile Dallas Mavericks, a 5-seed in the West who just knocked off the feisty LA Clippers in 6 games. The Mavericks earned a 4-2 series win 114-101 over the Clippers last Friday night.
The series was tied after 4 games. That’s when a bruised, sickly Luka Doncic went off for 35 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds, and 1 steal. It wasn’t quite ‘Michael Jordan with the flu in the 1997 finals against Utah’ good, but it was nothing to scoff at either. Combined with Kyrie Irving’s wizardry with the ball, the Mavericks took a 3-2 lead in a blowout.
The series returned to Dallas in game 6. Doncic and Irving picked up right where they left off in Los Angeles. Doncic registered 28 points, 13 assists, and 7 rebounds, and Irving scored 30 points including a silky-smooth 3 pointer from the corner which served as the proverbial dagger against the Clippers. Daniel Gafford’s blunt second-half dunk over Ivica Zubac made number two on ESPN’s Top Ten plays.
Gafford is the lone Hog on the Dallas Mavericks, while Isaiah Joe and Jaylin Williams (not to be confused with teammate Jalen Williams) team up for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Joe is a 3-point specialist who plays outside. Gafford and Williams earn their pay closer to the basket, they ply their trade in the paint. It’s there where the Big Hogs will face off.
Oklahoma City’s first-round win was much simpler than the battle Dallas had to fight. The Thunder swept the New Orleans Pelicans 4-0 in a series completed in New Orleans on April 29. After winning the first game in the series by 2, the Thunder doled out losses to New Orleans of 32, 21, and 8 points.
Oklahoma City earned the number one seed in the Western Conference playoffs through their excellence in the regular season. In addition to a superstar player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder ground their activity in Josh Giddy, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, and lock down defender Luguentz Dort who will undoubtedly be tasked with slowing down Doncic. Regardless of the outcome, the Mavericks will have a more uphill climb than they did when facing the Clippers.
Gafford has taken a front and center role with the Mavericks, splitting time with Dereck Lively as the inside presence for the Mavericks to provide defense and to keep opposing defenses who would rather focus on containing Doncic and Irving honest. Gafford is from El Dorado, a small town in South Arkansas, and was recruited to the Razorbacks by then coach Mike Anderson. After two seasons spent proving himself at the collegiate level, leading the Hogs to the NCAA tournament and an NIT appearance, Gafford declared for the NBA draft.
Gafford was traded to Dallas from the Washington Wizards in February, performing remarkably in his debut against none other than the Thunder, scoring 19 points and pulling down 9 rebounds. Doncic and Irving have benefitted from the additional option of dishing to Gafford for high percentage shots and alley-oops. At one point this season, Gafford made 33 consecutive field goals, second all-time to Wilt Chamberlain.
Jaylin Williams is from Fort Smith, Arkansas, a town on the border of Oklahoma. His mother is from Saigon, and Williams in the first player of Vietnamese descent to play in the NBA. Williams’s teammate Isaiah Joe is also from Fort Smith. Joe and Gafford were teammates on the 2018-19 Razorback squad. When the series starts, the only teams that matter will be the Mavericks and the Thunder. Game 1 will be in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, May 7, at 8:30 pm Central.
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