Jalen Williams’ injury-plagued regular season has followed him to the playoffs.
Williams checked himself out of the Thunder’s eventual Game 2 win over the Suns in the third quarter, grabbing his left hamstring. Williams missed a contested transition layup, and as soon as he landed, he grabbed his leg. Williams quickly checked himself out of the game and did not return.
“We think he aggravated his left hamstring,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said postgame. “We’ll take a look at it in the next couple of days, and we’ll update you guys when appropriate…
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“Any assumption about time missed is this hypothetical at this point, so I’m not going to comment on that.”
It’s been a rough season for Williams — an All-NBA player a season ago during the Thunder’s championship run — who played in just 33 games for the team in this campaign. Williams missed the first 19 games of the season recovering from offseason right wrist surgery. Then he was out for 30 more games during the season due to a right hamstring injury (the opposite of the leg he injured Wednesday).
When he did play this season, Williams averaged 17.1 points, 5.5 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game, but it took a while to find his shot again. In Game 1 of the series against the Suns, he scored 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting in an Oklahoma City win.
The Thunder took a 2-0 lead Wednesday night with a 120-107 victory. The series now heads to Phoenix for Game 3.
