Thunder Notes: Injuries, Game 4 Loss, SGA, Holmgren

The Thunder looked overmatched Sunday night without Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, and they may need at least one of them to return to have a chance to beat the Spurs in the Western Conference finals, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. Williams was downgraded to out with left hamstring soreness shortly before tipoff in Game 4, while Mitchell was ruled out Saturday night due to a strained right calf. There’s no indication yet on whether either player will be available when the series resumes Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

As Mussatto observes, OKC struggled to get good shots or even to hold onto the ball with two of their best playmakers sidelined. They shot 33% from the floor and 18% from three-point range and weren’t able to reach 80 points until Nikola Topic hit a garbage-time layup late in the game.

“I thought we left a lot to be desired on that end of the floor tonight,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “We didn’t have the sharpness, force or precision necessary to crack them. And they were really good defensively.” 

While the Thunder have experienced injuries throughout the regular season and playoffs, they’ve rarely had to survive without two of their best offensive initiators. In their absence, a huge burden fell on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was limited to 19 points by the Spurs’ smothering defense and missed nine of the 15 shots he took.

SGA didn’t get much help from his teammates as Alex Caruso was shut out, Luguentz Dort managed just two points and Jared McCain was 1-of-10 on a four-point night. The misfiring took place throughout the lineup with Cason Wallace going 2-of-8, Jaylin Williams 1-of-7 and Aaron Wiggins 2-of-11.

“I think it’s a snowball effect,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “When you come out with the right energy, things like (missing two ball handlers) work out and the offense has flow. I don’t think we came out with the right energy today.” 

There’s more on the Thunder:

• Gilgeous-Alexander talked about how to create more opportunities for Chet Holmgren, who had 10 points on eight shots Sunday night (video link from Dave Martinez of The Oklahoman). “Chet’s an easy target to find,” he said, “so probably just like find him more in the dunker, when he’s spacing, just put him in better positions to use his strengths as an offensive talent.”
• The Thunder are normally able to overwhelm opponents with their talent level, but that may not be possible for the rest of this series, states Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic. The inability to adjust to the absence of Williams and Mitchell and the poor response from so many players who were thrust into larger offensive roles took away the team’s normal cohesion throughout the game.
• Even though they got outplayed in Game 4, the Thunder have the solace of earning a split in San Antonio and returning to Oklahoma City with home-court advantage, notes Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman. The players understand that they’ll have to fight through adversity to get past the Spurs and return to the NBA Finals. “I think the biggest thing is we can’t rely on it being our best day to win basketball games,” Holmgren said. “We gotta figure out how to do whatever the game calls for for us to win games. We didn’t do it tonight. … We’ve done it in the past. We’ve had games where things didn’t go our way or shots weren’t falling, whatever it might be. We still figured out how to win the game, and that’s what we have to do.”