{"id":491232,"date":"2026-02-20T00:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491232\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:12:11","slug":"thunder-remain-without-sga-jalen-williams-in-return-from-all-star-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491232\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder remain without SGA, Jalen Williams in return from All-Star break"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tim MacMahonFeb 20, 2026, 10:47 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas MavericksAppears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> will open the post-break portion of the schedule without injured stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> and Jalen Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain) will be re-evaluated in approximately one week and Williams (right hamstring strain) in approximately two weeks, the team announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

Key reserve guard Ajay Mitchell<\/a>, who sprained his left ankle over the All-Star break while rehabbing from an abdominal strain, will also be re-evaluated in approximately one week.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, missed the last five games before the break after suffering his abdominal strain on Feb. 3. Oklahoma City has four games in the next week.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

Williams, an All-NBA selection last season, missed 10 games after straining his right hamstring on Jan. 17. He returned for a Feb. 9 road win over the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> but strained the hamstring again in the Thunder’s next game two nights later, when Williams scored 28 points in 20 minutes in a road win over the Phoenix Suns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitchell has not played since suffering his abdominal strain on Jan. 21, missing the last 11 games.<\/p>\n

The Thunder lead the Western Conference with a 42-14 record, three games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> in the standings. The Detroit Pistons<\/a> (40-13) have moved percentage points ahead of Oklahoma City in the fight for the league’s best record and homecourt advantage through the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim MacMahonFeb 20, 2026, 10:47 AM CloseJoined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas MavericksAppears regularly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-491232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}