OKC Thunder in tough with 5 core players out versus red hot Suns

The OKC Thunder will be severely shorthanded missing five players versus the Suns and playing on consecutive days.

With the hottest team in the bubble as the opponent in the second game of a back-to-back set, it served up concerning thoughts. But just prior to the game start OKC Thunder head coach Billy Donovan updated the team would be missing some additional core players.

It was known Dennis Schroder would be out since he left the bubble to attend the birth of his daughter and spend some time with his wife Ellen and son Jr. It’s also expected the Sixth Man candidate Schroder will return today (or early this week) and then enter a four-day quarantine.

5 core OKC Thunder players out versus Suns

It was also thought Steven Adams might miss another game after the awkward and hard fall he took in the Lakers match. The big man hasn’t played since and the team has missed him as much, if not more than Shroder.

But this is where things got wonky in terms of who wouldn’t dress for today’s game.

Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Nerlens Noel are also out.

In fairness, the Thunder have rarely played Gallo in back-to-back games. Noel missed Sunday’s match versus the Wizards after injuring his ankle.

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The real surprise was SGA – – but loyal T.I. readers will note we’ve been speculating about an injury for a few weeks now. If you’ve caught the games lately, no doubt you’ve noticed SGA has no lift in his jump shot. We’ve internally speculated that’s a leg injury of some sort so his absence seems to vindicate that perspective.

The report on SGA cited a right calf contusion.

This means players on the reserve unit need to step up in the absence of so many core parts of the team.

Two positives to draw from are the leadership of Chris Paul and his calm in working with the young players on the squad. Darius Bazley just posted his best game as a member of the Thunder scoring a career-high in the match Sunday.

There are numerous players on the Thunder yearning for minutes and they’ll get a shot today to show Donovan why that shouldn’t just be saved for special circumstances like injuries.

With the rested 5-0 Suns on tap the OKC Thunder will be in tough to get this win.

But, it’s better to get SGA and Adams specifically healthy for the bigger plan which is a deep postseason run.