San Antonio’s De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper, as well as Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams, are all listed as questionable for Game 3 Friday night in San Antonio.
Fox, the Spurs’ starting point guard, has missed both games this series with a sprained ankle suffered in the previous round against Minnesota. He worked out on the court prior to Game 2, before the decision that he would not play was announced. In his case, expect this to be another game-time decision.
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Harper stepped into San Antonio’s starting lineup with Fox out and had a breakout Game 1, where he scored 24 points to help spark the Spurs’ 2OT win. However, he had to leave Game 2 in the third quarter with what the Spurs are now listing as adductor soreness. The adductor, like the hamstring, is a muscle that is easy to re-injure or worsen if not fully healed before returning to play, so don’t be surprised if he sits out a game or games.
Without two of their three primary ball handlers at the end of the game, it put a lot of pressure on the Spurs’ Stephon Castle to be the team’s primary shot creator. He’s taken on a lot more of the ball handling load while going against the high-pressure defense of the Thunder, and the result is that Castle has 20 turnovers across the two games so far.
OKC’s Williams missed half of the Thunder’s first-round series against the Suns and the entire series against the Lakers with a left hamstring strain, and he appeared to re-injure that same muscle in the first quarter of Game 2. He received treatment on the bench for a while, then eventually went back to the locker room but did not return to the game. The team considers him day-to-day, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Williams scored 26 points in Game 1. The Thunder are used to playing without Williams, who took the court just 33 times this season due to wrist and right hamstring issues. That said, the Thunder will need contributions from everyone in what is a very even, tightly contested series.
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