The Oklahoma City Thunder just got significantly more dangerous. Jalen Williams, the Thunder’s star forward who has battled injuries throughout one of the most frustrating seasons of his career, is off the injury report and will return to the lineup Monday night for Oklahoma City’s road game against the Philadelphia 76ers. The news, confirmed by ESPN on Sunday, gives the NBA’s best team a critical reinforcement with 11 games remaining in the regular season and the playoffs approaching fast.
Williams missed the last five-plus weeks after straining his right hamstring for the second time this season, a setback that threatened to derail his return just as Oklahoma City was finding its best basketball.
A season defined by adversity
The 2025-26 season has tested Williams in ways that no player wants to be tested. The troubles began before the season even started. Williams had delayed surgery on a torn scapholunate ligament in his right shooting wrist — the wrist he uses to shoot — until after last year’s playoffs, choosing to play through the injury while requiring frequent pain-killing injections throughout Oklahoma City’s championship run. He averaged 21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game during that playoff run despite the pain, a testament to both his toughness and his commitment to his team.
The surgery that followed kept him out of the first 19 games of this season. When he finally returned, his shooting struggled to find its rhythm. He has averaged 17.5 points per game this season while shooting a career-low 31.3 percent from three-point range, numbers that reflect a player still working to rediscover the full function of the wrist that was repaired in the offseason.
Then the hamstring issues arrived. Williams first strained his right hamstring during a January 17 road loss to the Miami Heat, missing the next 10 games before returning February 9. Two nights after that return, during what was shaping up to be one of the most impressive individual performances of his season 28 points on 11-of-12 shooting in just 20 minutes against the Phoenix Suns he limped off the floor with the aggravated strain that would keep him out for another five weeks.
What his return means for Oklahoma City
The Thunder have not waited around for Williams to figure things out. Oklahoma City owns a league-best 56-15 record and has won 11 consecutive games since reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander returned from his own abdominal strain. The team has proven it can win at the highest level without Williams, which is a remarkable statement about the depth and talent of the roster.
But what Williams adds to this group when healthy is a dimension that nobody on the Thunder can fully replicate. He is a third-team All-NBA selection who gives Oklahoma City a second genuine scoring option alongside Gilgeous-Alexander — a player who can create his own shot, attack the rim, and make the offense genuinely unpredictable in ways that defenders cannot game plan away simply by loading up against SGA.
The Thunder’s projected starting lineup of Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein has played just 5 games together this entire season, a number that underscores how much this team has operated in crisis management mode while still somehow assembling the best record in the NBA. Getting Williams back with 11 games to go gives that lineup time to build chemistry and rhythm before the games that actually matter most begin.
The injury picture heading into the playoffs
Oklahoma City has had the second-most missed games due to injuries of any team in the league this season, trailing only the Memphis Grizzlies, according to ESPN Research. That the Thunder have built the best record in basketball despite that level of attrition speaks to the depth of the roster and the quality of the coaching staff’s ability to adjust and adapt throughout a grueling season.
The hope inside the organization is that Williams can use the final 11 regular season games to find his footing, rebuild his confidence from three-point range, and arrive at the playoffs feeling like the player he was during last year’s championship run. The Thunder know what he is capable of when healthy. The question now is simply whether 11 games is enough time to get there.
If it is, the rest of the Western Conference has a serious problem.
Source: ESPN
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