Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is out until the All-Star break. However, things have gone from bad to worse for the Oklahoma City Thunder. The reigning NBA champions are now under an internal investigation, and the news dropped before they faced the Los Angeles Lakers. For some time now, the league has been dealing with teams’ load management issues, and the Thunder fielding only eight players in last week’s game has drawn suspicion.

“According to a league source, the NBA is investigating the Oklahoma City Thunder for player absences due to injury during their nationally televised game last week against the San Antonio Spurs,” Dan Woike of The Athletic reported on Monday.

Nationally televised, in-season tournament games are important to the NBA so fans can presumably get their money’s worth. Teams cannot bench their star players for these games. A star player identifies as someone who has made an All-Star team or an All-NBA team over the last three seasons. Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams fall into that category under the Player Participation Policy introduced before the 2023-24 season.

For the Spurs game, the Thunder was without superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (abdomen), guard Jalen Williams (hamstring), center Chet Holmgren (back), guard Ajay Mitchell (abdomen), center Isaiah Hartenstein (cornea), guard Alex Caruso (adductor), and guard Lu Dort (knee).

However, Hartenstein, Holmgren, Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort, and Caruso all played in the Thunder’s 128-92 win over the Orlando Magic on Tuesday. Additionally, Hartenstein, Holmgren, Dort, and Caruso also played in their 112-106 loss to the Houston Rockets on Saturday.

This means the team claimed that these four players were all too hurt to play on Wednesday but were fine on Tuesday and Saturday. Wednesday’s game was the second night of a back-to-back, so the Thunder might have rested those players to avoid the risk of serious injury, which is called “load management.”

The league is now scrutinizing these injury claims. Penalties are set: $100,000 for the first violation, $250,000 for the second, and $1 million for each subsequent violation.

Earlier this season, the Cleveland Cavaliers were fined by the NBA for the same rule. It wasn’t their first offense.

This isn’t the first time the Thunder have been under investigation for violating league injury-reporting rules under head coach Mark Daigneault, either. They were fined $25,000 for a similar incident after failing to disclose Josh Giddey’s availability in an accurate and timely manner in November 2022.

Daigneault acknowledges Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s injuries’ impact

An abdominal strain has sidelined Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the All-Star game, where he was selected as a starter. The Thunder has played two games without its leader, who averaged 31.8 points this season, and has lost both. Daigneault spoke about the roster changes and the injury’s impact.

“He’d rather play, we’d rather him play,” the coach said. “This isn’t the best thing. But it’s the situation that he’s in and we’re in,” Daigneault said. “We always try to maximize all of the circumstances, even when it’s not a net positive.”

Despite the losses, the Thunder remain the first seed with a 40-13 record. One silver lining for Daigneault is the return of star guard Jalen Williams, who was not listed on the injury report for the Lakers game after missing 10 straight games. He is now back in the lineup to steady the ship without the reigning MVP.