Jalen Williams timed his steps like a high jumper before dunking the lob from Jared McCain. The play looked innocuous. There wasn’t an immediate grab. No pronounced limp. But the Thunder’s supporting star exited less than a minute later in the first quarter and never returned.
NBC’s cameras caught Williams walking into the Thunder’s locker room holding a wrap of ice against the back of his left leg.
The Thunder beat the Spurs 122-113 on Wednesday night to knot the Western Conference finals at one game a piece, but in doing so it lost Williams.
Maybe.
“I don’t deal with hypotheticals, especially when doctors are involved,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said after the game. “I just let them tell us what’s going on. He’ll get checked out in the morning, we’ll see where he’s at and we’ll update accordingly.”
Williams might play in Game 3 on Friday in San Antonio. He might miss the rest of the series. But those best-case and worst-case scenarios should yield the same result: The Thunder, with or without J-Dub, should beat the Spurs. No excuse not to, especially if this epic fight is decided by TKO.
Because while Jalen Williams exited for the Thunder in Game 2, so too did Dylan Harper for the Spurs. The Spurs are calling it a right leg injury for Harper, but it looked scary. It looked like a hammy.
This was Act 4 of J-Dub’s hamstring(s) acting up. First it was the right hamstring. An initial strain and subsequent flare up sidelined him for almost two months. Then, in Round 1 against the Suns, it was the left hamstring. Williams missed the last two games of the Suns series and all four games of the Lakers series. This latest injury was the left hamstring again.
“Obviously if we don’t have him it hurts,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I still believe in this team, though. Like you said, we played a bunch of games without him, won big games without him, but I still think we can get the job done.
“But yeah, losing a guy like that, a caliber of player like that, no matter how good your team is otherwise, it hurts a little bit. And also for him as a human being. He had a tough year with injuries.”
Apologies in advance for this grim proposal, but I think the Thunder wins a trade in which both Williams and Harper are out. But wait, J-Dub is a year removed from making All-NBA and Harper is a 20-year-old rookie who’s only starting for the Spurs because De’Aaron Fox (right ankle) is out.
Yeah, Williams is a better player. But in this series, I think Harper is more important to the Spurs than J-Dub is to the Thunder … especially if Fox is out.
Because if San Antonio doesn’t have Harper or Fox, the Spurs’ list of capable ball handlers is two-names long: Stephon Castle (who’s had 20 turnovers through two games) and Jordan McLaughlin (who was tagged with a DNP in Game 1 and played seven minutes in Game 2).
J-Dub is the Thunder’s second-best on-ball creator, but OKC still has the MVP in SGA. It still has Ajay Mitchell, who shined as a starter in Rounds 1 and 2 as a J-Dub replacement. And it has Jared McCain, more of a finisher than an initiator, but a trusted hand.
If both J-Dub and Harper are out, the only rationale for the Spurs winning this series is that Victor Wembanyama is that much better than everyone else on the court, SGA included. And maybe he will be. Williams, after all, might be the Thunder’s best option to defend Wembanyama — although Isaiah Hartenstein did a pretty darn good job in Game 2.
If Williams is out and Harper plays? Advantage Thunder, but just barely. OKC’s experience and championship pedigree should give it the edge against a Spurs backcourt that can’t legally drink.
The Spurs are deep, but the Thunder is deeper. Isaiah Joe and Jaylin Williams played fewer than 10 minutes in Game 2. Aaron Wiggins barely saw the floor. Kenrich Williams never took off his sweats.
“There’s a sense of readiness and confidence from everybody in the locker room,” Wiggins said.
“Guys will be ready,” Alex Caruso added.
The Thunder went 39-10 (.796) in the regular season without J-Dub and 25-8 (.758) with him. OKC was +11.7 points per 100 possessions with Williams on the court and only marginally worse (+10.9) with Williams off the court.
Is the Thunder better without J-Dub? No.
Can the Thunder beat the Spurs without J-Dub? Can it repeat as NBA champs without him? Yes and yes.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Thunder should beat Spurs even if Jalen Williams is out with injury