The Oklahoma City Thunder are off to a perfect 3-0 start. The Thunder have been able to navigate being short handed to start this season, missing six rotational players for at least one game, with four of them not even making their season debut yet –– on top of rookie Thomas Sorber being out for the entire season as he rehabs a torn ACL suffered during offseason workouts.
Oklahoma City enters a three game in four night stretch, seeing this contest against the Dallas Mavericks come at the front end of a back-to-back set which concludes in the Paycom Center on Tuesday against the Sacramento Kings.
The Thunder will still be without All-NBA forward Jalen Williams as he recovers from offseason surgery while continuing to await the season debut of Isaiah Joe, Kenrich Williams and Nikola Topic. Defense-ace Alex Caruso remains in concussion protocol that has held him out of Oklahoma City’s last two tilts.
Rising star Chet Holmgren once again appears on the injury report, as the big man is tabbed as questionable with lower back soreness. This is the same designation he started with on Saturday ahead of the Atlanta Hawks matchup before being upgraded to available and dropping 31 points.
However, it will be interesting to see how Oklahoma City elects to deploy Holmgren this week. He shouldered the offensive load in two of the three contests, while playing in two double-overtime games on top of this upcoming back-to-back set. In addition to his back soreness, the Gonzaga product sustained a thumb injury he played through against the Hawks in the first half.
These injury reports are updated hourly, with head coach Mark Daigneault informing the media Monday evening of the plan for the seven-footer.
The Dallas Mavericks are playing the front end of a back-to-back tonight, playing host to the Toronto Raptors in the American Airlines Center before welcoming in the Oklahoma City Thunder tomorrow night. The Mavericks will not release an updated injury report until Monday afternoon.
This game marks the second straight tilt that the Thunder are facing off with a team on the second night of a back-to-back, while Oklahoma City is in the midst of three games in four nights, on the first leg of a back-to-back set ending on Tuesday at home against the Sacramento Kings.