PHILADELPHIA — After missing 26 of the prior 28 games with a right hamstring strain, All-NBA forward Jalen Williams made his return to the Thunder lineup Monday night, finishing with 18 points, four rebounds and six assists in 20 minutes in a 123-103 victory over the injury-riddled Philadelphia 76ers that was Oklahoma City’s 12th straight win and improved its record to 15-1 since the All-Star break.
More importantly, Williams said that not only is his leg feeling better, but his surgically repaired right wrist — which delayed his start to the season by over a month — is finally back to 100%, declaring it “feels better than it ever has.”
“It was just like one of those things that like when you have surgery and you rush into games, it’s like, I wouldn’t say rush, but I’m going into games with … I don’t know what my hands are going to look like,” Williams said after the victory at Xfinity Mobile Arena. “So now I’ve had the time to actually sit down and work on it and do what I normally do throughout that process, now I’m in a really good spot with it.
“And now it’s just more about getting my legs back and getting a rhythm with the team.”
It has been a particularly difficult season from an injury standpoint for Williams, who played just his 27th game Monday night and his first since scoring 28 points in 20 minutes in a road win over the Phoenix Suns on Feb. 11.
That night, Williams — who had just returned the game prior — aggravated the right hamstring strain that had already cost him several weeks and wound up costing him several more. And that injury had come several weeks after Williams finally got his season underway in late November following offseason wrist surgery after he played a starring role in the Thunder claiming their first NBA title in June.
“I wouldn’t say frustrating is the word,” Williams said when asked how frustrated he has been by the injuries. “I think if I was on a different team, I’d be more frustrated, but I’m around good energy. So I think that’s been one of the things that keep me going.
“I’ve been trying to use [the injuries] as a positive, too. My wrist has felt better than it ever has, so I think that was a big hurdle during the season that I’ve been able to, I guess, really get over. It feels back to normal. … I feel really good.”
For Oklahoma City, Monday night marked just the sixth time all season that the starting five from Game 7 of June’s NBA Finals took the court together, and built upon only a total of 41 minutes across the first five games.
As the Thunder have attempted to become the first team since the Golden State Warriors in 2017-18 to defend their title — a record streak of eight consecutive seasons without a repeat champion — injuries have been a constant storyline, and not just for Williams.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the favorite to repeat as the league’s MVP, has missed 12 games, putting him in danger of falling short of the league’s 65-game minimum for end-of-season awards eligibility. Cason Wallace and Isaiah Joe are the only players to have missed fewer than 10 games all season, and four of the team’s top eight players — Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso and Ajay Mitchell — have missed more than 20 games.
Now that Williams is back, when Mitchell — who was suspended for Monday’s game for an incident in Saturday’s win over the Wizards — returns to action Wednesday in Boston against the Celtics, it will mark one of the first times all season the Thunder will have their entire projected rotation available to play.
“I think it’s going to end up being a blessing in disguise a little bit,” Williams said of the many injuries the Thunder have dealt with this season. “It’s going to give us a little more urgency to kind of figure out how to play with all the guys. I think it’s also one of the coolest things about the team is that we have an issue because of our depth.
“I don’t think we’ve all played together yet. So I think that goes a little taken for granted because we’re really good, but it’s definitely one of those hurdles we’re going to have to get over. We have enough games to do it.”
That, however, has only minimally impacted Oklahoma City’s push to claim the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs for a third year running. Entering Monday night’s action, the Thunder had a plus-11 net rating — the best in the NBA by a full three points over the Detroit Pistons — and had both the league’s seventh-ranked offense and top-ranked defense.
The Thunder have needed every bit of their hot play over the past several weeks to stay in front of the San Antonio Spurs, who won yet again Monday night in Miami. The Spurs, who have beaten the Thunder in four out of five meetings, remain three games back of Oklahoma City, with the tiebreaker in hand, with 10 games remaining for both teams.
The Thunder will now hope to use these final three weeks of the regular season to get themselves in rhythm for what the franchise hopes will be another deep playoff run — and a second straight title.
“Yeah, I’m excited that we’ve got everybody healthy,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I’m excited for them. I hate when a guy’s out with an injury that sucks for the guy first, but it’s energizing. It gives us another puzzle that we’ll have to work through.
“It’s not easy when you’re integrating guys back in, but it’s also a credit to the guys that have been healthy, that have played well and have really elevated our team. And so I am excited for Wednesday.”
