The Oklahoma City Thunder are set to start a home-road back-to-back on Tuesday evening in the Paycom Center as they welcome the Golden State Warriors before jetting back to Phoenix for another matchup with the Suns on Wednesday night. They will start this tough stretch without their key rookie Jalen Williams.
In a massive win over the Utah Jazz on Sunday, the OKC Thunder saw their young trio of Jalen Williams, Josh Giddey, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander combine for 94 points. However, during the contest, Williams went up for a finish at the rim and instead was hit with a charge in which he hurt his wrist. He stayed on the ground in pain and held his wrist for an extensive amount of time. After finishing the game, it was announced today, before tip-off against the Warriors, that Jalen Williams is out with a wrist sprain.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will start a difficult stretch without their key rookie Jalen Williams, who is out with a wrist sprain.
The Thunder are set to begin a tough stretch. After this Warriors/Suns back-to-back, they have another back-to-back waiting for them on Saturday/Sunday, both on the road against the Pelicans and Spurs.
The OKC Thunder return home to play a scrappy Brooklyn Nets team before heading north to take on the Raptors, then playing the five games that will shape the season as they take on the Suns, Clippers twice, Lakers, and Blazers from March 19th-26th featuring a back-to-back between the second Clippers game and Lakers game.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is dealing with an abdominal strain which head coach Mark Daigneault explained will impact his minutes and game management.
Suppose it is unlikely that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander plays both games of this back-to-back. Is it possible the Thunder are managing Jalen Williams’s wrist sprain in this game before managing SGA’s abdominal strain next game? We will have to wait and see.
For this game against the Warriors, who the Thunder have yet to beat in eight tries, OKC will be without Jalen Williams, Kenrich Williams, Aleksej Pokusevski, and Chet Holmgren.