Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams won’t play in Game 7 against the visiting San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night after making a brief appearance in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.
Williams, who aggravated a left hamstring injury in Game 2 and sat out the next three contests, came off the bench for 10 minutes of Game 6. He went 0-for-1 from the floor, made one free throw, committed two turnovers and finished with a minus-18 rating.
“He’s obviously not 100%,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said after his team’s 118-91 loss on Thursday. “He didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what to expect. So, it was a matter of getting him out there in kind of an insulated role and see what he can bring to the team.
“He’s an All-Star player, he’s an All-NBA player. He hasn’t done a full return-to-play (protocol) like he would if this was the regular season, and yet, he just wants to do whatever he can to try to contribute whatever he can to the team.”
The Thunder listed Williams as out Friday evening on their injury report, alongside Ajay Mitchell, previously ruled out for the series with a soleus strain.
Williams, 25, was a third-team All-NBA selection in 2024-25. In that campaign, he averaged 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists during the regular season before helping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and the Thunder win the NBA championship.
Wrist and hamstring injuries limited Williams to 33 games in the 2025-26 regular season, and he contributed 17.1 points, 5.5 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game. He has appeared in five postseason games — the first two first-round games against Phoenix and Games 1, 2 and 6 vs. the Spurs — and put up 14.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 41.7% shooting from 3-point range.
