Jalen Williams was ruled out for Saturday’s Game 7 of the Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs, leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder without one of their best two-way players in the biggest game of the season. The decision came after Williams suited up for Game 6 but played only 10 minutes before the Thunder closed the series facing another injury check on their rotation.
Mark Daigneault said after Game 6 that Williams had not suffered a setback, but he also made clear the forward was not 100 percent and had not completed a full return to play. Williams was dealing with the same left hamstring injury that had already cost him the final two games of the first-round sweep of the Phoenix Suns, the entire second-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, and games 3-5 against San Antonio.
The Thunder kept trying to find a way to use him because the alternative was losing his production altogether. Williams had averaged 17.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.5 assists this season, but injuries have made his playoff run stop and start from the opening round onward. He missed the first two games of the postseason sweep of Phoenix after the hamstring issue, then returned for Game 1 against the Spurs before aggravating the injury early in Game 2.
Daigneault said the team and Williams had “all the stakeholders” huddled before he tried to play and again after Game 6, when the hope was to test him in a limited role. That role never became a real return. He had missed the Thunder’s first 19 games of the regular season after offseason wrist surgery, then later played only two games between mid-January and late March after injuring his right hamstring, making this season a long chain of interruptions for a player who was an all-NBA performer last year.
The Thunder were also without Ajay Mitchell for Game 7 after he had not played since straining his right calf in Game 3 of the West finals. Jared McCain had started the last two games and was averaging more than 13 points per game in the Western Conference finals, giving Oklahoma City one more reason to lean hard on its remaining guards. If the Thunder win Game 7 and reach the NBA Finals, Daigneault said Williams will continue rehab before the next round begins.
