OKC Thunder Under NBA Investigation Following Spurs Contest

On Monday, it was announced that the NBA has launched an investigation into the Oklahoma City Thunder for player absences due to injury during their Nationally Televised contest last week against the San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder fell 116-106 and even had that game into what the league considers clutch time with just eight active players. Ten of the Thunder's 15 standard contracted players were in street clothes for this game.

Being investigated strangely isn't new to this OKC Thunder organization. A year ago, the Thunder beat the then surging Portland Trail Blazers with back up big man Jaylin Williams stealing head lines with a triple double, but were still looked into given who all missed that affair.

Despite tanking being the league's biggest problem right now –– aside from a team obviously circumventing the salary cap, which Silver still has not dealt with –- the NBA has elected to look into this best in the league 40-13 Oklahoma City Thunder squad.

In that game, the OKC Thunder were without superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with an abdominal strain, which the team has already announced will hold the reigning MVP out at least through the All-Star break, forcing him to miss the mid-Winter class. I think that clears past the NBA's watchful eye.

Oklahoma City was also without All-NBA swingman Jalen Williams, who everyone saw suffer a Hamstring strain in Miami and has kept him out of the previous ten contests, including the game following this Spurs clash against the Houston Rockets. That checks out, as does the Thunder's Ajay Mitchell, who has missed eight straight games with an abdominal strain.

Rookies Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber were also on the injury report, as those two have yet to debut this season, and the latter has already been ruled out for the entire season. Nothing to see here.

Then, you get into the teeth of this examination from the NBA offices. Isaiah Hartenstein missed Wednesday's game with a Right Eye Corneal Abrasion suffered by being poked in the eye during the Orlando Magic tilt the night before, and was seen with this eye issue in the post-game locker room. Any medical professional will tell you these issues clear up in 24-48 hours normally so given the Thunder's Thursday and Friday off days it makes sense as to why he played on Saturday against Houston just one game later.

First-time All-Star Chet Holmgren was sidelined due to back spasms, an issue that not only is impossible to prove for or against, but the Thunder have labeled him with back spasms all season on their injury report, dating back at least to the week of Christmas, for games he missed and even ones he played in, such as Tuesday's game against Orlando. Not a lot of merit there is worthy of being pinched by the league.

Lastly, you look at the two defensive aces, Lu Dort and Alex Caruso, who were out with Right Patellofemoral joint inflammation and an Adductor Strain, respectively. Again, no one knows if they were suffering through those things, but the nature of a back-to-back makes this not only practical but, for Caruso, especially noteworthy as he has dealt with an adductor strain throughout this season that has held him out of other contests.

Quickly, the NBA's investigation loses steam and the Oklahoma City Thunder should be in the clear. This is the league making a mountain out of a mole hill while during a blind eye to the Utah Jazz who yanked Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen off the court in the third frame this weekend to ensure a loss, a clear violation of the NBA's star player participation policy as both members of the Jazz fit into what the league qualifies as a star even if they do not in the court of public perception of these fine front court players.

Ultimately, nothing should and likely will come of this investigation, but it is something to monitor moving forward as the Oklahoma City Thunder navigate through the rest of the 2025-26 campaign in hopes of becoming the first team since the 2018 Golden State Warriors to win back-to-back titles.