After missing the past six games with a right soleus (calf) strain, starting center Isaiah Hartenstein is not on the Thunder‘s injury report ahead of Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinal against the Spurs, which indicates he’ll be available to play, tweets Rylan Stiles of SI.com.
Oklahoma City got some other reinforcements back ahead of Wednesday’s quarterfinal win over Phoenix, with Luguentz Dort (right adductor strain) and Alex Caruso (right quad contusion) returning from injuries that cost the defensive stalwarts three and four games, respectively.
Guard Cason Wallace, who leads the NBA in steals per game (2.3), will be active on Saturday as well after leaving Wednesday’s game early — he was hit by a hard screen from Suns center Mark Williams, per Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman (subscriber link).
The defending champions have been on an absolute tear this season, holding an active 16-game winning streak — a franchise record — heading into Saturday. The Thunder are currently 24-1, tied with the 2015/16 Warriors for the best 25-game start in NBA history.
Head coach Mark Daigneault was asked after Wednesday’s blowout victory how the Thunder have avoided complacency after winning the title in ’24/25 (Twitter video link from Martinez).
“You have to understand anything in the past takes you out of the present moment,” Daigneault said in part. “Anything in the future takes you out of the present moment. And the competition happens in the present moment.”
2.3 is the league leader? Ouch that’s weak
Must be all watching each other shoot
IHart, JWill, Chet, two #1 picks >>>> to Bucks
Giannis >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> to Thunder
Nope, they don’t need him or want him. Literally have 1 loss and best chemistry in the league.
Chet stretches the floor better than Giannis and will continue to for the rest of the career. Even JWill stretches the floor better.
This would also be terrible because you think OKC would give up all their bigs haha
Nope. Chet and IHart are fine. They don’t need Giannis that bad.
Plus. They could have a top 5 pick next June depending on Clippers.
If anything they should package their top 5 pick, the jazz pick, the rocket pick to the #1 holder and take Cameron Boozer to add some front line depth as weird as that sounds taking a guy #1 and he’d be a depth piece in the system
that would also be a cheap rookie contract for 5 years over a guy that cost $60mill in their 30s
Going to be the first time they have everyone available. Might be trying to send a message to young Spurs.