Gabby Williams was the best player on the court on Sunday afternoon, leading the Golden State Valkyries to a 71-60 win over the defending champion Las Vegas Aces.
With presumptive MVP A'ja Wilson still somewhere in the building, Valkyries owner Joe Lacob made a triumphant declaration: "Print this: Gabby Williams is the best player in the world."
Here's the thing: Lacob just might be right.
Gabby Williams has been transcendant
On the surface, Lacob's statement seems like the kind of hyperbole that is fitting for the owner of a team to say about his star player in the aftermath of a big playoff win. He is supposed to think highly of his own players. He is supposed to build them up. And it is also very likely that he is overstating his case.
Wilson, for one, is going to win her 5th MVP award any day now, the most in WNBA history. She has been dominant in this postseason as recently as one game earlier, and she still nearly matched Williams point-for-point with 24 points in the Game 1 loss. Nearly everyone in and around the WNBA would say that Wilson remains the best player in the world.
Gabby, however, absolutely has a case.
She was the best defensive player this season, likely losing out on Defensive Player of the Year due to a lighter minutes load. That lighter load not only allowed her to play for France in the World Cup, but it also kept her fresh for the postseason. And the results are beautiful to behold.
This postseason, Williams is averaging 25 points, 6 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.8 steals, while shooting 47.3 percent from deep, 46.7 percent from deep and 94.1 percent from the free-throw line. No player in WNBA playoff history has ever averaged that many points, rebounds and assists. No one. Not Wilson or Breanna Stewart, not Maya Moore or Candace Parker, not Diana Taurasi or Cynthia Cooper, not Tamika Catchings or Lisa Leslie.
Williams is not only filling up the box score, but she is driving winning at the highest level. ESPN Analytics has a Player Impact metric called "Net Points" that tracks a player's impact on each possession of a game. Gabby Williams leads the entire postseason in net points at +27.3, ahead of Wilson in second and Stewart in third.
Williams has done all of that while taking on difficult defensive assignments; there is no hiding her in the Valkyries' scheme. She shut down Paige Bueckers for much of their first-round series, and then helped hold the entire Aces team to poor shooting in Game 1 of the second round.
Williams scored 17 stone-cold points in the second half of Game 3 to take down the Dallas Wings, then dropped 25 against the defending champs. She is on fire, defending at an elite level, and doing everything on hte basketball court. The Valkyries are up 1-0 and it's because of many players and head coach Natalie Nakase, but most of all because of Gabby Williams.
Best player in the world? Perhaps not yet. But Joe Lacob does not look so crazy for saying so.
Add us as a preferred source on Google