Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams was taken off the court on a stretcher after suffering a serious left leg injury in Sunday's 108 to 101 National Basketball Association (NBA) victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
The 25-year-old wing was hurt with 1 minute and 14 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter while attempting a dunk. Point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 34 points to secure the team's third consecutive win to open the regular season.
Williams came down hard and landed awkwardly on his left leg after being fouled on the dunk attempt by Clippers guard Kris Dunn. Following a video review, game officials classified Dunn's infraction as a Flagrant 1 foul, which in the NBA penalises unnecessary contact committed against an opponent.
Williams initially tried to get back to his feet, but Thunder teammate Chet Holmgren motioned for him to stay on the floor. Medical personnel brought out a stretcher to carry Williams off the court while the crowd chanted his nickname, J-Dub, and the forward gave a thumbs-up sign to the fans before leaving the floor.
Injury update and team reaction
Oklahoma City did not immediately release a diagnosis of the injury after the final buzzer. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, who has led the bench since November 2020, said the team expected to receive new information on Williams' condition on Monday.
Following the win, Gilgeous-Alexander lamented the injury to his teammate and stressed how important Williams is to the squad. The Thunder guard said he felt very sorry for Williams and acknowledged that it would obviously be difficult to play without a player like him, while adding that the forward was not gone forever, would come back better than ever, and that the rest of the roster needed to hold the fort until he returned.
The injury follows a previous campaign that was also disrupted by physical setbacks for Williams. Selected 12th overall by Oklahoma City out of Santa Clara University in the 2022 NBA Draft, the versatile wing played only 33 games during the previous regular season and missed a large part of the Thunder's postseason run to the Western Conference Finals.
Three Thunder rotation players exit hurt
Jalen Williams was the third member of Oklahoma City's rotation to leave Sunday's game with physical issues. Guard Cason Wallace, a first-round pick out of the University of Kentucky in 2023, exited in the first half of the opening quarter after feeling pain in his left shoulder during a collision on a screen play.
At the end of the first quarter, Thunder frontcourt player Jaylin Williams also left the court with pain in his right wrist. Both Jalen Williams and Jaylin Williams were drafted by Oklahoma City in 2022, prompting teammates and supporters to call the wing J-Dub to distinguish the two players on the roster.
Following Jalen Williams' departure from the court in the closing stages of the fourth quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander made two free throws to extend the Thunder's lead to six points. On the next possession, the point guard hit one more foul shot to practically seal the win for Oklahoma City.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads second-half comeback
Gilgeous-Alexander finished the game shooting 13 of 26 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. The Canadian international, who was originally acquired by Oklahoma City in a July 2019 trade with the Clippers after spending his rookie season in Los Angeles, is the reigning two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP).
His 34-point performance came one game after his NBA-record streak of consecutive games with at least 20 points came to an end. Gilgeous-Alexander had no trouble passing that mark again against his former franchise, scoring 16 points in the third quarter alone.
Point guard Darius Garland led the Clippers on offense with a double-double of 16 points and 11 assists. Los Angeles took a 64 to 57 lead midway through the third quarter after Garland knocked down a three-point shot.
Bench surge and Clippers turnovers
Oklahoma City answered the Clippers' third-quarter advantage through its reserves, who put together a 20 to 10 run to move the Thunder back in front. Veteran guard Alex Caruso, an NBA champion in 2020 known for his perimeter defense, contributed five points, two assists and one steal during that burst, including a three-pointer that tied the score.
Nine of Oklahoma City's points during that third-quarter surge came directly off Clippers mistakes. Reserve guard Ajay Mitchell finished with 18 points off the bench for the Thunder, while center Isaiah Hartenstein recorded a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds. In basketball, a double-double is achieved when a player reaches at least 10 in two of the five primary statistical categories in a single game.
Oklahoma City's defense proved decisive across all four quarters, as the Thunder forced 26 Clippers turnovers and turned those giveaways into 38 points to build their lead and control the scoreboard in the closing minutes. Now 3 and 0 on the season, the Thunder will turn their attention to the next game of a back-to-back schedule on consecutive days.
