The Oklahoma City Thunder will be without their star guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, for tonight’s game against the Phoenix Suns. Along with Gilgeous-Alexander, Ousmane Dieng (G-League assignment), Chet Holmgren (Foot), and Aleksej Pokusevski (leg) remain out. The Suns will not have star forward Kevin Durant (MCL), who they expect to return on Wednesday, against the Hornets.
The OKC Thunder are coming off a loss to the Utah Jazz last night, which places them a half-game back of the NBA play-in tournament with a brutal stretch ahead. The Thunder will take on the Suns on the second night of a back-to-back, the Kings for a baseball-style series starting on Tuesday, the Lakers on Wednesday on the second night of a back-to-back, and two straight tilts with the Jazz at the Paycom Center.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was tabbed as day-to-day for the Oklahoma City Thunder by Mark Daigneault pregame against the Suns.
With a day off tomorrow, as the Oklahoma City Thunder returns home, we might learn more about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s injuries. However, with this being a day-to-day thing and being listed with ankle soreness and a hip flexor injury, will he really be ready for Sunday? So again, we will have to wait and see.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has played in 54 of the 58 possible games for the Oklahoma City Thunder so far. Unfortunately, he will now miss his fifth game, and we will see how long this keeps him out moving forward.
Mark Daigneault said of the injury, “the hip flexor is something that he’s been dealing with and dealing with fine, but that really flared up after last night’s game. He was in a lot of pain this morning. It just isn’t wise for him to play tonight with that.” the Thunder bench boss continued, “The ankle, I have less detail on, to be honest with you. I think that was an acute thing that happened in the game. I think if that was the only thing he was dealing with, he would probably try to go, but the hip flexor thing is what we’re being careful with.”
That synopsis is what led Mark Daigneault to label Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as Day-to-Day (but aren’t we all?), and it sounds like the best way to describe SGA’s ailments. The Thunder will have Saturday off to see how Gilgeous-Alexander responds to this hip flexor flair-up.