The Oklahoma City Thunder face extended absences for starters Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace, both of whom will undergo surgery to repair injuries suffered during Sunday’s win over the LA Clippers.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti announced on Monday that Williams, a forward, suffered a fractured fibula and a dislocated left ankle, while Wallace suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Presti said the timelines for both players’ returns will be known after the operations. Both injuries typically require multiple months of rehabilitation, putting the availability of Williams and Wallace in doubt for the remainder of the season.
Williams suffers gruesome injury
Williams was injured after being fouled on a drive and landing awkwardly with 1:14 remaining in the game. His left leg collapsed, and his ankle was bent at an unnatural angle. Medical personnel rushed to attend to him as his teammates and Clippers players reacted in shock. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander buried his face in his jersey and bent down near Williams.
Williams was placed on a stretcher and wheeled off the court to a standing ovation. He gave the crowd two thumbs-up as he was taken off. The 25-year-old, an All-Star and All-NBA selection two seasons ago, has endured a miserable stretch of injury misfortune over the past 18 months.
Williams played the entire playoffs during the Thunder’s 2025 championship run despite a torn ligament in his right (shooting) wrist that required surgery, and he delivered a 40-point performance in the pivotal Game 5 win over the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. The recovery from that wrist surgery caused him to miss the first 19 games of last season, and recurring strains to both hamstrings ruined the rest of his campaign. He was limited to only 33 regular-season games and sat out 10 of Oklahoma City’s 15 playoff games, exiting three other games early. Williams is in the first season of a five-year, $239 million maximum contract he signed in the wake of the championship.
Wallace injured in first quarter
Wallace, who signed a five-year, $139 million contract extension last week, injured his shoulder in the first quarter against the Clippers. He went down after running into a moving screen set by Clippers centre Isaiah Jackson. The 22-year-old, an All-Defensive selection last season, moved into the starting lineup on a regular basis after the Thunder traded Luguentz Dort to the Atlanta Hawks in a cost-cutting move over the summer.
Presti offers optimism
Presti addressed the media at the Paycom Center on Monday evening. “We’ll wrap our arms around these guys,” he said. “We’ll get them back, we’ll get them healthy, but we got a lot of basketball to play in front of us. We got to put it together, figure out what the next steps are because this is part of the business that we’re in.”
He added: “Not going to sit up here and say this is exactly where we want to be or this is how we’d like to have it, but at the same time, we are extremely optimistic about the recovery for both players. Most importantly, things could have been a lot worse. I think in these types of situations, it’s important to kind of take stock, take a step back, realise we’re dealing with people.”
Presti concluded: “They’re going to be back out there. They’re going to be playing for our team. They’ll be representing our city and our state in short order.”