OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder will face Saturday night’s decisive Game 7 matchup against the San Antonio Spurs without two key players, as Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell remain sidelined due to injuries that have plagued them during the Western Conference finals.
Williams continues to battle a left hamstring strain that has troubled him throughout much of the postseason. Mitchell is dealing with a strained right soleus muscle.
The injury struggles have been a recurring theme for Williams, who sat out 49 of the team’s 82 regular-season contests due to wrist and hamstring ailments. Saturday’s Game 7 will mark the 10th playoff game this season that Williams has been unable to participate in due to his latest hamstring troubles. He did manage to appear in five games during this series, including approximately 10 minutes of action during Thursday’s Game 6 defeat to the Spurs.
Mitchell had stepped into the starting role to fill Williams’ absence until sustaining his own injury. Since then, Oklahoma City has turned to Jared McCain as their starter in that position, joining Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Isaiah Hartenstein, Lu Dort and Chet Holmgren in the starting five.
In contrast, the Spurs enter Game 7 with a clean bill of health, listing no injuries on their report.
The NBA has assigned Marc Davis, John Goble and Josh Tiven as the officiating crew for Saturday’s winner-take-all contest between the Spurs and Thunder. Both Davis and Tiven bring Game 7 experience from earlier in these playoffs, with Davis having worked the deciding game of the Cleveland-Detroit series in Round 2, while Tiven officiated Game 7 of the Orlando-Detroit matchup in Round 1.
