Team Basketball Important for OKC Thunder in Difficult Stretch Without Starpower

Just like the game before the All-Star Break, the Oklahoma City Thunder will be without multiple key playmakers to begin their home stretch of the season. MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Rising Star Ajay Mitchell and 2024-25 All-NBA wing Jalen Williams will all be sidelined for at least the next week of gametime.

Williams will be re-evaluated for the hamstring strain that he reaggravated against the Phoenix Suns in his second game back from the injury in two weeks. Gilgeous-Alexander and Mitchell continue to deal with abdominal strains.

The Thunder are still winless, with losses to the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks without the trio this season, and now the team faces a gauntlet four-game schedule in the minimal missed window of games. When Williams returned, the Thunder tallied two wins against playoff teams in the Western Conference, but he exited the game midway through the third quarter.

In the next week, OKC is set to play the Brooklyn Nets, the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers, the Toronto Raptors and the East's top seed, Detroit Pistons. If none of the three are back by the team's final game of the month on Friday, Feb. 27, a matchup against the Denver Nuggets awaits.

Winning games without three of a team's top four scorers will be a great challenge, and the games being against teams of this high magnitude will make it even more rough. Outside of Friday's game against the Nets, the Thunder will face three teams with a combined record of 109-57, a winning percentage of 65.7%.

If the Thunder want to will out positive results in this stretch, they will have to rely on what has gotten the team to the level of a championship repeat contender: high-level, team basketball. The team has put themselves into positions to win in two out of the three losses without the trio of players, playing in the clutch against the Spurs and Rockets.

With multiple guards who have scoring potential still in the rotation and two high-caliber centers in Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren, OKC has the makings to pull off wins with the combination of its defensive personnel and scoring potential.

An additional adjustment is to give newcomer Jared McCain more run. The former Philadelphia 76er has had an immediate impact in his short time with the Thunder so far, with the team shooting 48.9% from three-point range when he is on the floor, totaling an on-court net rating of +27.0 in 52 minutes of action.

It will be challenging to deal with three major injuries at the same time, but if any team would be prepared, it would be the Thunder. Team-oriented basketball will be key to tackle this difficult part of their schedule.