Key players sidelined as OKC's depth unravels, jeopardizing their #1 seed and championship aspirations. The injury bug bites hard.
Move over, San Antonio Spurs. The Oklahoma City Thunder have a far more threatening adversary. One that potentially stands in the way of achieving their goals of locking up the league's #1 overall seed and making another championship run.
The injury report.
The Thunder dropped a heartbreaking 117-114 game to the East's last place Indiana Pacers on a frigid Friday night in Oklahoma City. Mark Daigneault's squad were big favorites coming into the contest as Indiana has struggled all season without injured superstar point guard Tyrese Haliburton. But the Vegas betting line didn't take into account the Pacers' motivation to win one at The Paycom Center after their NBA Finals Game 7 defeat back in June. Nor the laundry list of Thunder players out due to injury.
OKC did have the best player on the court in reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. OKC did also have available a probable soon-to-be All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner Chet Holmgren. And those two stars dominated the Pacers. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 47 points. Holmgren scored 25 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and tallied 3 blocks. The Thunder outscored Indiana while each of them were on the floor.
The problem was that the star duo accounted for 72 points on 25 of 42 shooting and the rest of the team only scored 42 points on 15 of 40 shooting. On the other side of the court, OKC allowed the Pacers to shoot 16 of 38 from deep. Not hard to imagine that having a few more of their best defenders could've helped curb those numbers.
It's widely accepted Oklahoma City has the league's greatest depth. But Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso, Ajay Mitchell and Aaron Wiggins are arguably OKC's third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth best players. No matter how deep or talented the roster, any team would suffer without the services of that much top end talent.
To illustrate the point a step further, it's not just the talent that OKC is missing. It's the specific and essential roles the players who are out provide for the team. Williams and Mitchell are the Thunder's secondary creators, ball handlers and playmakers outside of Gilgeous-Alexander. So the offense suffers to get organized when the MVP sits. Wiggins is the only other self creator on squad and one of the most reliable sources of bench scoring. Hartenstein is the Thunder's only other true seven foot rim protector and rebounder besides Holmgren. And Caruso's energy and massive two way ability is difficult to replicate.
Ultimately, OKC dropped one close, winnable game to an understandably inspired Pacers squad. The matchup likely goes differently if the Thunder had all their guys. But the bigger concern is the upcoming schedule after home tilts with the Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans.
The schedule is about to get a lot tougher. The Thunder are going to need to get healthy. Because if they don't, the injury report is going to continue to scare OKC fans much more than the Nuggets, Rockets, Timberwolves or Spurs.