Thunder Notes: Caruso, Gilgeous-Alexander, McCain, Accountability
The Thunder boast a two-time MVP guard, an All-Star big man, and an All-NBA wing, but through two games of the Western Conference Finals, 32-year-old backup guard Alex Caruso has been the key to unlocking the team’s potential on both ends of the court, Kelly Iko writes for Yahoo Sports.
A year after showing his versatility by defending Nikola Jokic in the playoffs, Caruso has been tasked, at times, with guarding Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. Even more importantly, he has shown no fear in attacking the first-ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year on offense, even as some of his teammates shied away from the large barrier Wembanyama represents.
“He’s got an unbelievable focus and is a monster competitor,” said coach Mark Daigneault said of Caruso. “It seems like the bigger the moment, the bigger the game, the more he wants to compete in it. And he’ll fail and not blink, and he’ll be aggressive in the next possession, next game and he was huge again tonight. His minutes were massive for us.”
With Jalen Williams limited by injuries and Ajay Mitchell and Chet Holmgren working themselves into a rhythm, Caruso has stepped up offensively. Through two games, he is the series’ third-leading scorer behind the two teams’ respective MVP finalists, averaging 24.0 points per contest while hitting 11 of his 18 threes.
Caruso’s ability to guard up in the lineup also has downstream effects on the Thunder’s offense, as they are able to play more guards alongside him, thereby injecting much-needed shooting and ball-handling as the team searches for creases in San Antonio’s imposing defense.
“His leadership is over the roof, honestly, especially on the [defensive] end of the floor,” Luguentz Dort said. “He communicates a lot. He’s really smart as a player and watches a lot of basketball as well. So he knows a lot of plays and the tricks we need to get stops defensively. Able to read the game well and he’s been amazing.”
Whether he can keep up the hot shooting remains to be seen, but with Williams being listed as day-to-day after leaving Game 2 early with a hamstring injury and Mitchell also suffering an injury scare, Caruso’s responsibilities are unlikely to decrease as the series progresses.
We have more from the Thunder:
- After an uncharacteristically quiet performance in the Game 1 loss, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put together the kind of MVP performance fans have come to expect from him in Game 2, Joel Lorenzi writes for The Athletic. “I guess I just have sucked when I get too long of a break,” he said. “I don’t think it’s anything other than that. I don’t know. I guess I gotta do a better job with my breaks, especially during the playoffs.” Instead of playing into the Spurs’ coverages, Gilgeous-Alexander found ways to get to his spots and stopped letting Stephon Castle‘s rugged defense get to him. “We just had no choice but to play to our strengths,” he said, “or else.”
- If you just looked at the efficiency, it would be easy to miss Jared McCain‘s impact on Game 2, Lorenzi writes. Although McCain made just 4-of-14 shots from the floor, his energy and hustle were clearly infectious as he played his way to 12 points, six rebounds, and two steals in 26 minutes. This is nothing unusual for a player who has quickly ingratiated himself with his Thunder teammates due to his outsized personality, Marc J. Spears writes for Andscape. “The first week or two that he was here felt like he had been here the whole season,” Dort said of McCain. “That is the type of guy he is. That is the type of locker room we have. Really funny and really loud, and he blended in with everyone really quick.” It’s not just about his off-court personality, though. “That translates to his game as well,” Caruso added. “He is constantly moving on offense, which is manipulating the defense. He’s starting to pick up some of our other principles. He picked up a big offensive rebound tonight.”
- The Thunder have built a juggernaut based on the principles of precision, attention to detail, and accountability, writes Dan Woike of The Athletic. On a roster as loaded with NBA-level talent as Oklahoma City’s, players have had to find roles they can thrive in, even if that feels like a sacrifice. Cason Wallace is a good example of that trait: there are 20 players from the 2023 draft class that are averaging more points per game than the former 10th overall pick, but those guys aren’t playing critical minutes in the Western Conference finals, as he is. Even when Wallace isn’t on the floor, though, he knows what is expected of him. “Honestly, you just go out there and be who you are,” the defensive-minded point guard said. “If it’s your night then, you know, it’s your night, and we’re all gonna be excited, and we’re all gonna put our best foot forward. But when it’s somebody else’s night, we also understand that and we cheer them on.”
- While that sounds good in theory, Daigneault and the players know that it’s one thing for players to talk about accountability, but quite another to buy into it. “There’s a collective understanding of where the bar is,” Holmgren said, per Woike. “And it’s human nature is to be imperfect. Nobody’s gonna be perfect. I might shoot a shot where it’s ‘S–t, I ain’t shot one in a while.’ Human nature is ‘OK, let me get one up’ … But there’s an understanding that there’s human nature, that nobody’s gonna be perfect. But there’s also an understanding if somebody sees you drifting, hey, we’re gonna pull you back in.”
Jalen Williams, Dylan Harper To Undergo MRIs After Game 2 Exits
Thunder forward Jalen Williams and Spurs guard Dylan Harper both left Game 2 of the Western Conference finals early on Wednesday due to hamstring injuries, according to reports from Tim MacMahon of ESPN and Michael C. Wright of ESPN.
Williams was on the floor for just over seven minutes in the first quarter before checking out and receiving treatment on his left hamstring. The Thunder announced in the third quarter that Williams wouldn’t return to the game due to hamstring tightness.
The hamstring in question is the same one that Williams strained earlier in the playoffs, forcing him to miss the last two games of Oklahoma City’s first-round series vs. Phoenix and the entire second-round series vs. the Lakers. The 25-year-old, who scored 26 points in 37 minutes in his return to action on Monday, will undergo an MRI to determine whether he has strained the hamstring again, a source tells MacMahon.
“He’s going to get checked out,” head coach Mark Daigneault told reporters after the game. “I don’t deal in like hypotheticals, especially when doctors are involved. … We’ll see where he’s at. We’ll update him accordingly.”
While Ajay Mitchell made six starts in place of Williams earlier in the postseason, it was Cason Wallace who opened the second half of Game 2 alongside the rest of Oklahoma City’s usual starters. Both players could be in line for increased roles if Williams is forced to miss more time. Mitchell went down late in the fourth quarter with an apparent leg injury and received medical treatment on the bench, but he said after the game that he just got hit in the thigh and should be fine going forward, per Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The Spurs, meanwhile, had already been without starting point guard De’Aaron Fox due to a high ankle sprain and are now in danger of his replacement, Harper, missing time too. The rookie standout exited in the third quarter and didn’t return due to what appeared to be a right hamstring injury. He’ll undergo an MRI on Thursday in San Antonio, sources tell Wright.
Harper was excellent in Game 1 in Fox’s place, racking up 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and seven steals in a season-high 47 minutes of action. In Game 2, he registered 12 points, three assists, and two rebounds in 25 minutes before being forced to the sidelines.
As for Fox, he took part in pregame warmups prior to each of the first two games of the Western finals and the Spurs were said to be hopeful about his chances of returning for Game 2, but he was ultimately held out of both contests in Oklahoma City.
“He’s just trying to play every day,” head coach Mitch Johnson said. “It’s a tough injury that he wouldn’t be playing with in the regular season. So, he’s trying to tough it out. He did that in Minnesota. He had an awkward landing. So, he reaggravated it. We’ve just got to make sure he’s in a place that he can be out there and compete to the level that he would need to in the game that we’re playing.”
If Fox and Harper are both unable to play on Friday, the Spurs would have to lean more heavily on Stephon Castle and veteran reserve Jordan McLaughlin. Castle has struggled to maintain control of the ball against the Thunder, turning it over 11 times in Game 1 and nine times in Game 2. Still, the Spurs remain confident in his ability to operate as the team’s primary ball-handler.
“Steph is a dog,” teammate Keldon Johnson said. “He’ll figure it out. We support him every step of the way. [He] turned the ball over. We all turn the ball over. It’s not just on Steph.”
As for McLaughlin, he averaged a career-low 6.4 minutes per game in 44 regular season appearances and hasn’t been in the playoff rotation, but his teammates aren’t concerned about the possibility of him playing an expanded role, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required). The veteran point guard had six points in seven minutes in Game 2.
“Every single time J-Mac comes in, he makes the right play, hits a big shot,” Spurs forward Devin Vassell said after Wednesday’s game. “As soon as he came in (tonight), he wasn’t even warm yet and he hits a three. He’s steady. If he needs to come in and play, I don’t think anybody is worried or concerned.”
Thunder Notes: Mitchell, SGA, Wallace, Joe, Lottery
With the Lakers holding reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in check, a new star is emerging for the Thunder, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN. Second-year guard Ajay Mitchell, who wasn’t part of OKC’s rotation during its march to the title last season, had 24 points, 10 assists and no turnovers on Saturday as his team grabbed a 3-0 series lead with another dominant victory.
“I think the biggest thing for me was just going out there and being confident,” Mitchell said. “I know what I can do. When I go out there, I just want to compete and help this team win and play freely.”
Mitchell, who finished fifth in the Sixth Man of the Year voting, is only starting because Jalen Williams is sidelined with a Grade 1 hamstring strain. He has been a difference-maker in the first three games of the series, averaging 20.7 points, 6.7 assists and 1.0 turnovers while connecting at 53.3% from the field. He has also been the primary defender on Austin Reaves, who hasn’t shot well for most of the series.
“He’s just finding his footing,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’s obviously his first run in the playoffs. It’s obviously a different ballgame. He’s just getting more and more comfortable as the game goes on, as the series goes on. I said this before, he had a rough [Game 2 in Phoenix], but he was so confident out there. I was never worried that he was going to figure it out, and he’s showing that.”
There’s more on the Thunder:
- L.A.’s focus on controlling Gilgeous-Alexander has been effective, even though Oklahoma City is finding other ways to win, MacMahon adds. SGA finished with 23 points in Game 3, but was uncharacteristically inefficient, making just seven of his 20 shots. The Lakers are using former Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart to deny him the ball and then employing double teams whenever it does come to him. “Obviously, I haven’t been my best in performances, but I think I’ve been able to help the team win and that’s most important,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “As long as we win. If the rest of the playoff run or the rest of my career look like what it looked like the past few games, I’d be OK with it because we won games.”
- Mitchell could become one of the league’s biggest bargains over the next couple of years, notes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. As the 38th pick in the 2024 draft, he’s already the lowest-paid player on the roster at $3MM, and his salary falls to $2.85MM next season with a team option for the same amount for 2027/28. He’ll be extension-eligible by that point, and Mussatto expects the Thunder to reward him with a long-term contract that’s more in line with his production.
- Cason Wallace, who posted the highest-scoring playoff performance of his career with 12 points in Game 2, nearly exceeded it in the first quarter on Saturday, notes Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman. The third-year guard scored 11 points in the quarter by hitting all four of his shots, including three from beyond the arc, before finishing with 16. Isaiah Joe, who was losing playing time to Jared McCain earlier in the series, added 12 points and went 4-of-6 from three-point range.
- The Thunder, who already have the deepest roster in the league, could get even better with some lottery luck Sunday afternoon. They own the Clippers’ selection at No. 12, giving them a 1.5% chance to land the top overall pick and a 7.1% chance to finish in the top four, as we outlined in our lottery primer.
Northwest Notes: Braun, Wallace, Love, Nurkic, Blazers
After signing a five-year, $125MM rookie scale extension with the Nuggets last October, Christian Braun had a down year. As Bennett Durando of The Denver Post details (subscription required), an ankle injury limited Braun to 44 regular season appearances and his three-point percentage dropped to 30.1%, easily a career low.
“I was rewarded for my work on my rookie deal, so I understand the expectations are higher, and I need to be better,” Braun said. “That just is what it is. So as an individual, I understand I need to get better. I need to play better. I get to get healthy, first and foremost. But there is no excuse.”
That left ankle injury – a severe sprain that included torn ligaments – was a recurring issue throughout the season and continued to swell up in the playoffs, Durando writes. Braun also sustained a left calf injury in Game 1 of the first round, two sources tell The Denver Post, which further limited his jumping ability. Still, the 25-year-old insisted that a disappointing year for both him and the team couldn’t be simply chalked up to health issues.
“A first-round exit’s not acceptable. We’ve gotta bounce back,” Braun said. “We’ve gotta get to work. … You can kind of put it on my shoulders. I think this team wasn’t resilient enough in the playoffs. … I just think I’m the leader of this team. I’m the vocal leader of this team. And when we don’t play well as a whole, you can blame whatever you want … You can blame anything. But I didn’t play well enough as an individual, and I didn’t have this team ready enough to play in a tough series. So we’ll be better. I’ll be better. I’m looking forward to next year, when we can respond.”
As Durando points out, while a cap-strapped Nuggets team may explore the possibility of trading Braun as his pricey extension begins, the widespread belief is that Denver would need to attach an asset or two to incentivize a team to take on that five-year contract. With that in mind, it’s more likely that Braun sticks around and gets a chance to rebuild his value with a bounce-back season in 2026/27.
We have more from around the Northwest:
- The Thunder – who have had the NBA’s best defense in each of the past two seasons – have no shortage of standouts on that end of the court, but Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman contends that third-year guard Cason Wallace deserves to be singled out with an All-Defensive nod this spring. “He leads the league in steals,” Luguentz Dort said of his teammate. “That says it all. The way he’s active with his hands, it’s really not easy to do. I’ve been trying, and obviously it’s not the same result. Just what he brings on that end of the floor, he’s active with his hands and he can move his feet really well. He’s really fast, and he’s stronger than people think as well. There’s a lot of stuff he does defensively that’s hard to do.”
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) previews what he believes may be the Trail Blazers‘ “most pivotal offseason in at least a decade,” examining the team’s cap situation and considering whether the time is right for the front office to make a major trade. It might make sense for Portland to cash in this summer on some of its excess first-round picks, Gozlan argues, since the teams those first-rounders are coming from – Orlando and Milwaukee – may improve in the coming years, reducing the value of their picks.
- Veteran big men Kevin Love and Jusuf Nurkic have expressed interest in remaining in Utah, prompting Sarah Todd of The Deseret News to consider whether the Jazz should want them back. Given that Love will likely be signing a minimum-salary contract, he’s probably more likely to return than Nurkic, whose future could hinge largely on his price tag in free agency, Todd writes.
Victor Wembanyama Named Defensive Player Of The Year
Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama has been named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 2025/26 season, the league announced on Monday (Twitter link). He’s the youngest player in league history to win the award, tweets Shams Charania of ESPN, and is the first player to win it in a unanimous vote, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
Wembanyama, who received all 100 first-place votes, led the NBA in total blocked shots (197) and blocks per game (3.1) by a significant margin and ranked second in defensive rebounds per game (11.5) despite playing just 29.2 minutes per night. His 28.5% defensive rebounding percentage was the highest mark in the league among qualified players.
The Spurs star also limited opponents to a 42.0% field goal percentage and anchored the NBA’s third-best defense. San Antonio allowed 103.6 points per 100 possessions when Wembanyama was on the court and gave up 113.7 points per 100 possessions when he sat.
Wembanyama was the favorite to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2024/25, but a blood clot prematurely ended his season in February, preventing him playing in the 65 games necessary to qualify for consideration. He missed some time this year due to health issues, but met the 65-game criteria during the final week of the regular season.
Thunder big man Chet Holmgren, who previously finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to Wembanyama in 2023/24, once again finished as the runner-up to his conference rival for a major award — he earned the second-most votes for Defensive Player of the Year, including 76 second-place votes and 11 for third place. Holmgren ranked second in the NBA in blocks per game (1.9) and was the primary interior presence on a Thunder team that had the league’s No. 1 defensive rating (106.5).
Pistons wing Ausar Thompson was the top Defensive Player of the Year vote-getter among perimeter players, coming in third behind Wembanyama and Holmgren with nine second-place votes and 33 third-place votes. Thompson ranked first in the NBA in steals per game (2.0) despite playing fewer minutes per contest (26.0) than the seven players who ranked right behind him in that category. Detroit was sandwiched between OKC and San Antonio with the league’s second-best defensive rating (108.9).
A total of 13 players showed up on at least one Defensive Player of the Year ballot, with Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes rounding out the top five, in that order.
Celtics guard Derrick White, Thunder guard Cason Wallace, Rockets guard Amen Thompson, Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, and Knicks forward OG Anunoby each received multiple votes, while Pistons center Jalen Duren, Warriors forward Draymond Green, and Heat big man Bam Adebayo showed up on one ballot apiece.
The full results can be viewed here (via Twitter).
While Defensive Player of the Year honors can, in some cases, ensure that a player qualifies for a higher maximum salary on his next contract, that won’t be the case for Wembanyama despite the fact that he’ll likely sign a maximum-salary rookie extension with the Spurs during the coming offseason. The Rose Rule criteria will require him to win MVP or DPOY or simply earn an All-NBA spot in 2026/27 in order to qualify for a contract that starts at 30% of the ’27/28 cap (instead of 25%).
Northwest Notes: Thunder, Nuggets, THJ, Sharpe, Krejci, Edwards
After clinching the No. 1 seed and the NBA’s best record on Wednesday, the Thunder won’t exactly be going all out to win Friday’s matchup with Denver. They’ve ruled out 10 players, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (right oblique injury management), Chet Holmgren (low back spasms), Jalen Williams (right hamstring injury management), and Cason Wallace (left great toe soreness), tweets Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman.
However, there’s a chance the Nuggets will find themselves shorthanded as well. Already missing Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones due to hamstring strains, Denver has also listed Nikola Jokic (right wrist injury management), Jamal Murray (right shoulder impingement), and Aaron Gordon (right hamstring injury management) as questionable (Twitter link).
We have more from around the Northwest:
- Veteran wing Tim Hardaway Jr. hasn’t received a ton of buzz as a Sixth Man of the Year candidate, but the Nuggets are pushing his case for the award, according to Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette. The 34-year-old has averaged 13.5 points per game on .449/.409/.813 shooting in 79 games for Denver, including 74 as a reserve. “He’s Sixth Man of the Year,” Murray said on Wednesday. “He’s really a starter for us. He’s playing the same minutes as a starter, guarding some of the best players. Just a real professional, honestly, same energy, same mentality every single night. (He’s) real consistent in that regard, so it’s always good to have somebody that you can rely on to not just put the ball in the hoop but for their energy and leadership every single night.”
- The Trail Blazers have upgraded guards Shaedon Sharpe (left fibula stress reaction) and Vit Krejci (left calf contusion) to questionable for Friday’s showdown with the Clippers, the team announced (via Twitter). Sharpe has been out since February 6, while Krejci last played on March 15. A win on Friday would put Portland in the driver’s seat for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference standings heading into Sunday’s regular season finale.
- Anthony Edwards has played in just two of the Timberwolves‘ past 12 games due to a knee injury and an illness, but the team remains hopeful he’ll suit up for at least one of its games this weekend. Edwards is listed as questionable for Friday’s contest in Houston, per the Wolves (Twitter link), and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link) thinks he’ll probably play as long as things go well at shootaround. Starting center Rudy Gobert, meanwhile, will sit out a second straight game for rest purposes after playing in 76 of Minnesota’s first 79 games this season.
And-Ones: Perimeter Defenders, Malone, Cooper, Vezenkov
The NBA’s All-Defensive teams tend to be loaded with big men, so Fred Katz of The Athletic put together a hypothetical All-Perimeter Defense team for the 2025/26 season.
Featured among Katz’s first-teamers is Knicks‘ OG Anunoby. Katz points to a game against Denver in which Anunoby guarded Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon, Cameron Johnson, and Bruce Brown, managing all of those assignments effectively. Anunoby is a key part of why the Knicks are a top-10 defense this season despite having a roster built around Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Also on Katz’s All-Perimeter Defensive first team are Derrick White (Celtics), Scottie Barnes (Raptors), Ausar Thompson (Pistons), and Cason Wallace (Thunder). Thompson’s brother, Amen Thompson of the Rockets, headlines Katz’s second team.
We have more notes from around the world of basketball:
- Michael Malone made news recently when he was named head coach for the University of North Carolina. The former Nuggets head coach had been in the NBA from 2003-25 in various capacities, but will now embrace the challenge of college basketball. Details of Malone’s contract have now been reported, as Brian Murphy of WRAL News in North Carolina writes that he is set to earn $50MM over six years (Twitter link).
- Lakers legend Michael Cooper will be the next head coach at Cal State LA, according to the City News Service at the Los Angeles Daily News. The 70-year-old Hall of Famer spent three seasons as a Lakers assistant coach from 1994-96 before moving to the WNBA, where he served first as a Los Angeles Sparks assistant and then as a head coach, leading them to two championships and being named Coach of the Year in 2000. He was the interim head coach of the Nuggets for 14 games in the 2004/05 season. “I’ve always said it takes five Ds to win a championship: determination, dedication, desire, discipline and decision-making,” Cooper said. “I’ve incorporated those principles into my coaching philosophy, and they will be pillars of what we do here at Cal State LA.”
- Former Kings forward Sasha Vezenkov struggled during the 2023/24 season, his lone year in the NBA. Vezenkov’s agent, Nikos Lotsos, says the 6’9″ shooter made the move stateside because of external pressure, not internal drive, which was one reason why he had an underwhelming year. However, Lotsos also says that Vezenkov never felt that he had the support of then-head coach Mike Brown. “Everyone else wanted him except for Brown,” Lotsos said, according to Stavros Barbarousis and George Adamopoulos of Eurohoops. The agent believes that the lack of faith from the coaching staff is part of why Vezenkov was unable to carve out a consistent role with the team.
And-Ones: All-Defense, G League Playoffs, Acuff, Fertitta
Yahoo Sports contributor Nekias Duncan lists his picks for the two All-Defensive teams (as of March 27). Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Rudy Gobert, Bam Adebayo and Derrick White comprise Duncan’s first team, while Cason Wallace, Stephon Castle, Dyson Daniels, Scottie Barnes and Marcus Smart are on the second.
Duncan also cites nine honorable mentions who didn’t quite make the cut, including Evan Mobley, last year’s Defensive Player of the Year. Duncan says Ausar Thompson would replace Smart if he qualifies; the third-year forward needs to play at least 20 minutes in seven of Detroit’s last eight games to be eligible (Smart may not qualify either due to the requirements of the 65-game rule).
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The 16-team field and schedule for the NBA G League playoffs has been set, the league announced in a press release. The Osceola Magic (26-10) are the top seed in the Eastern Conference, while the South Bay Lakers (26-10) are the No. 1 seed in the West. The NBAGL playoffs feature a single-elimination tournament until the finals, which is best-of-three. Osceola and the Stockton Kings (23-13, the third seed in the West) faced off in last year’s finals, with Stockton winning the title.
- Darius Acuff Jr. is widely projected to be a top-nine pick in the upcoming draft and one NBA general manager recently told Marc J. Spears of Andscape he thinks the Arkansas guard is the third-best prospect in the 2026 class, behind BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and UNC’s Caleb Wilson. Razorbacks head coach John Calipari, who has coached numerous future NBA stars in college, says teams would be foolish to pass over Acuff, a first-team All-American as a freshman. “Pass on him, you’ll regret it,” Calipari told Andscape. “I said it about Tyrese (Maxey). I’ve said it about a bunch of guys. I said it about Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander): ‘You’re going to regret passing on this kid.’ And I know there are other good players, but this kid (Acuff) is unique.”
- Rockets owner Tillman Fertitta and his family have reached an agreement to purchase the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun and relocate the team to Houston, confirms Alexa Philippou of ESPN. Chris Baldwin of PaperCity Magazine first reported the news. The plan is for the Sun to finish 2026 in Connecticut before relocating in 2027. The Fertitta family is spending $300MM to buy the team, which is expected to be called the Comets. The Houston Comets were a WNBA team from 1997-2008.
Two Players Suspended, Three Fined For Thunder-Wizards Scuffle
Wizards forward Justin Champagnie and Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell have been suspended one game apiece for their roles in Saturday’s scuffle between the two teams, the NBA announced in a press release (Twitter link).
Champagnie and Mitchell were suspended without pay for “fighting and escalating an on-court altercation which spilled over into the spectator stands,” per the league’s statement.
In addition to the two suspensions, Thunder big man Jaylin Williams was fined $50K, while Thunder guard Cason Wallace and Wizards forward Anthony Gill were each fined $35K for their parts in the incident, which occurred late in the second quarter of Oklahoma City’s victory.
After a long review by the officials, Champagnie and Williams were each given two technical fouls, which is an automatic ejection. Mitchell and Wallace were assessed one technical apiece and were also thrown out of the game.
In a pool report, crew chief John Goble explained that Champagnie and Williams each received one technical foul for pushing each other during a dead ball. Champagnie’s second technical was for making contact with Mitchell’s face, while Williams was T’d up for his actions during the fight.
Goble added that Mitchell and Wallace were tossed because they were not “acting as peacemakers” and were “escalating the altercation.”
Gill wasn’t penalized at all at the time, but obviously the NBA changed its stance upon further review.
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, while Champagnie and Mitchell were the ones suspended, they were actually penalized a little less severely from a financial standpoint because their respective contracts are relatively modest. Champagnie will lose $13,503 from $2.35MM salary, while Mitchell will forfeit $17,241 of the $3MM he’s earning in 2025/27.
Four Players Ejected In Thunder-Wizards Scuffle
An altercation late in the first half of Saturday’s game between the Thunder and Wizards resulted in four ejections (Twitter video link from Bleacher Report).
According to Joel Lorenzi and Josh Robbins of The Athletic, it started as a dispute between Washington’s Justin Champagnie and Oklahoma City’s Jaylin Williams that quickly involved several other players. Ajay Mitchell began exchanging words and shoves with Champagnie along the baseline, and the battle spilled into the courtside seats under the basket.
“I’ve never seen him like that,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of Mitchell. “But at the same time, I’m not really surprised by his reaction. He’s a tough kid, tough as nails. Not only on the court, but off the court as well. He’s as tough as they come, so I knew there’d be no back down when he’s involved in anything.”
After a long review by the officials, Champagnie and Williams were each given two technical fouls, which is an automatic ejection. Mitchell and the Thunder’s Cason Wallace were assessed one technical apiece and were also thrown out of the game.
In a pool report, crew chief John Goble explained that Champagnie and Williams each received one technical foul for pushing each other during a dead ball. Champagnie’s second technical was for making contact with Mitchell’s face, while Williams was T’d up for his actions during the fight.
Goble added that Mitchell and Wallace were tossed because they were not “acting as peacemakers” and were “escalating the altercation.”
The Wizards’ Anthony Gill appeared to shove Mitchell from behind, but Goble stated that no action was taken against him because Wallace pushed Gill into the scrum and it was “not observed that Gill did anything in an unsportsmanlike manner to assess a penalty.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said he’s “worked with John Goble a long time,” and they discussed the ejections before “agreeing to disagree.”
Wizards coach Brian Keefe was on the opposite side of the court and couldn’t see much of the scuffle, but he told reporters, “I just know that our guys stuck up for each other, which I always love.”
The authors note that Saturday’s incident was the third one involving the Thunder in the past few weeks. Luguentz Dort and Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears had a post-game altercation on January 27 that resulted in $25K fines for each of them, and Dort was ejected for tripping Denver center Nikola Jokic in late February, which prompted a face-to-face confrontation between Jokic and Williams.
“It’s a combination of things,” Isaiah Hartenstein replied when asked about the skirmishes. “We’re a physical team. Every time we play, I think there’s always a chip on the other team’s shoulder. We’re also not gonna back down against anything. I don’t really put anyone at fault for that — it just happens. We have a passionate group of guys, and every time we play, teams are coming with their best shot, and sometimes, it just gets physical.”
Saturday’s exchange is expected to result at least in fines and possibly suspensions. They’ll likely be announced before the Wizards play Sunday night in New York. Oklahoma City’s next game is Monday at Philadelphia.