After being without him for much of the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder will once again have to adjust to playing without Jalen Williams.
One of the Thunder’s primary ballhandlers, Williams suffered a Grade 1 left hamstring strain in Wednesday’s Game 2 win over the Phoenix Suns in their Western Conference first-round series.
Oklahoma City leads the series 2-0 heading into Saturday’s Game 3 in Phoenix.
The Thunder will be without Williams for at least a week before he’s reevaluated, a diagnosis Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault called a “relatively positive development.”
The injury figures to mean a more prominent role for Ajay Mitchell.
Mitchell was used little in last season’s championship run, averaging seven minutes per game, with most of his playing time coming late in blowout wins.
But the second-year guard made a significant leap this season, giving the Thunder another ballhandling option behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams.
“He is very even-keeled on and off the court,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He’s just a guy that is always in the moment — he’s never too high, never too low — and it allows him to sustain a certain level of play and performance.”
Mitchell scored 14 points off the bench with five rebounds, five assists and two steals in Game 2.
Williams’ injury is certainly among the biggest storylines in the series, but the chippy play between the teams has also been prominent.
In Wednesday’s 120-107 Thunder win, Phoenix’s Dillon Brooks and Oklahoma City’s Luguentz Dort were assessed simultaneous technicals after a brief tussle for a potential rebound on a free throw, then the Suns’ Devin Booker was called for a technical when he threw the ball off Jaylin Williams while trying to keep a possession alive.
All three technical fouls were rescinded Friday, though Booker was fined $35,000 for postgame criticism of officials.
Daigneault said the officiating and any controversy around it wasn’t a distraction to his team.
“We’re focused on Game 3 and what we need to try to go win Game 3,” Daigneault said. “… We want to be ruthlessly focused on the things we can control that are gonna help us win the next game.”
Oklahoma City has won 10 consecutive first-round games, sweeping the first round in each of the last two seasons.
Booker is averaging 22.5 points per game in the series, but Phoenix coach Jordan Ott said the team needs to create more around him to help overcome the Thunder’s league-best defense.
“They’re the best defensive team for multiple years for a reason. They have multiple guys they can throw at him. They come in different ways,” Ott said. “… I know there’s ways we’ve got to get him the ball in better spots, especially as the game goes and it’s up, down, up, down, we’ve somehow got to get him the spots.”
Though Oklahoma City has won the first two games by an average of 24 points per game, a home win could help turn the tide toward the Suns.
“We’ve been talking about how one game can change a series,” Phoenix’s Oso Ighodaro said.
The Suns have been without Grayson Allen (hamstring) since the end of the regular season and Jordan Goodwin (calf) since a Game 1 injury. Both went through drills following Friday’s practice while Mark Williams (foot), who hasn’t played since April 14, did not appear to be participating and has been ruled out for Game 3, according to the Arizona Republic.
