The Oklahoma City Thunder were nearly at full strength on Tuesday when they faced the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena. And, led by the returning Jalen Williams, the Thunder came away with a 119–110 victory in what would have been a marquee matchup if superstars Luka Dončić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had not been sidelined due to injury.
Williams, who missed OKC’s past 10 games due to a hamstring strain, poured in 15 of his 23 points in the second half to lead the Thunder to the win. Isaiah Joe and Alex Caruso provided additional firepower, coming off the bench to score 19 and 17, respectively, for the league-leading Thunder.
LeBron James led the Lakers with 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 10 assists, while Austin Reaves added 16 points and 7 assists off the bench. Their efforts, though, were not enough to keep OKC from snapping its two-game skid heading into Los Angeles.
Thunder Unbothered by NBA Investigation
Prior to the Thunder’s game against the Lakers, The Athletic’s Dan Woike reported that the NBA is investigating OKC for sitting out 10 players in its nationally televised showdown with the San Antonio Spurs over the weekend. Those 10 players were:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain)
- Chet Holmgren (low back spasms)
- Alex Caruso (right adductor strain)
- Jalen Williams (right hamstring strain)
- Luguentz Dort (right patellofemoral joint inflammation)
- Isaiah Hartenstein (right eye corneal abrasion)
- Ajay Mitchell (abdominal strain)
- Nikola Topić (surgical recovery)
- Ousmane Dieng (not with team)
- Thomas Sorber (right ACL surgical recovery)
Since 2023, the NBA has made it clear that teams must ensure their star players—or those who have made the All-Star team or All-NBA teams—are available for nationally televised games to maintain fan interest.
To be fair to the Thunder, only Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams fit the bill of a “star player,” and both were legitimately injured when they missed OKC’s game against the Spurs.
Needless to say, it will be interesting to see what comes out of this investigation. At the very least, the Thunder appear unbothered by it.
