Thunder's Jalen Williams, Ajay Mitchell Official Injury Status for Game 5

It’s a basketball miracle that the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs have produced such cinema in the Western Conference Finals - the series is tied at 2-2 - considering the injuries on both sides.

Spurs All-Star point guard De’Aaron Fox missed the first two games of the series due to a high ankle sprain suffered against the Minnesota Timberwolves on May 10. While Fox is clearly not fully healthy, he’s at least on the floor and able to run the Spurs’ offense.

San Antonio’s rookie phenom Dylan Harper also suffered an injury scare (right adductor soreness) in Game 2 but has played in all four games. Harper, like Fox, is clearly hampered, but having him available at all is far superior to the alternative.

The Spurs have avoided disaster, but the Thunder haven’t been so lucky.

According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, All-Star and All-NBA wing Jalen Williams is questionable for Game 5, and guard Ajay Mitchell (soleus) has been ruled out. Williams, however, has a worrisome update to his injury designation, going from left hamstring soreness to left hamstring strain.

Williams missed large swaths of the regular season with a right hamstring strain. Then, Williams strained his left hamstring in Game 2 of the Thunder’s first-round sweep of the Phoenix Suns. He missed the final two games of that series and the entirety of the Thunder’s sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the following round. Mitchell started in his place and had a bit of a star turn.

Williams returned for the Western Conference Finals and put up 26 points in Game 1 last Monday, but he exited early in Game 2 with a right hamstring injury. Mitchell exited early in Game 3.

Obviously, it’s never ideal to be without an All-Star when trying to become the NBA’s first repeat champions since 2018, but the Thunder are used to playing - and winning - without him. This is an especially troubling picture for the Thunder because Mitchell is also out.

The weight will fall squarely on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s shoulders to generate offense for the depleted Thunder. The back-to-back reigning NBA MVP has full confidence.

“It changes things,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after Game 4. “[We have to] play through the bigs a little bit more. I mean, guys have different strengths out there. And like you said, two of our handlers, creators, are out. But guys are good off the ball, and we’ve played a fair amount of games with no handlers, so we’ll be a little bit used to that.”

He continued, “Regardless, I think it’s just a snowball effect. When you come out with the right energy, things like that work out, and the offense has flow.”

The Thunder and Spurs will meet again for Game 5 on Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.

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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 6:42 PM.