It was made clear in their double-overtime Game 1 thriller: There’s not much that separates the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs. That’s what you expect with the top two seeds from the West grappling to get through to the finals. However, at the end of that pulsating game, most players were exhausted. The Spurs’ Stephon Castle called it ‘the hardest game of his life’. Sadly, players from both teams might have taken some damage as a result of their efforts in the series opener.

The Thunder’s Jalen Williams appeared to reaggrevate his left hamstring strain. Williams missed the entire second-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers due to the same ailment. The dynamic Thunder forward only played seven minutes before hobbling to the locker room, gripping his left hamstring with a towel. J-Dub never returned to the bench, playing just seven minutes and tallying 4 points and 2 steals in the contest. There didn’t seem to be a specific moments Williams hurt his hamstring. One of his last actions was finishing a lob, suggesting there wasn’t any pre-existing discomfort.

It’s a grave loss for the Thunder. However, over in San Antonio, things just took a turn for the worse. One of the stars from Game 1 and these playoffs, Dylan Harper, had an awkward landing on his right leg twice in quick succession. He first injured his hamstring while challenging Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the rim. The Spurs guard felt something on that very play, but continued playing. Right after, Harper skied for a rebound against Chet Holmgren and appeared to land, trying to avoid putting any weight on his right leg. In his case, the Spurs rookie had his leg taped up beforehand. However, due to De’Aaron Fox still recovering from an ankle sprain, Harper had to play through the pain.

The All-Rookie First Team guard seemed destined to have another terrific performance before his exit. Dylan Harper compiled 12 points and 3 assists while shooting 50% from the field. He was one of only three Spurs players to record a positive point differential. The crazy part? The 20-year-old attempted to rush back into the game, even reaching the Spurs bench. But the team’s medical staff escorted him back. It could be as a precaution to assess the injury thoroughly.

Nonetheless, with this set of injuries, the series will surely change. Teams will have to throw their current game plans out of the window if these turn out to be long-term ailments.

Coaches offer updates on injuries

Right now, there’s no unrest within both camps regarding the injuries. There’s largely not enough evidence or information around the ailments yet. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault briefly touched on Williams’ injury. With him, there’s some history regarding the same hamstring being affected. Williams missed nearly a month and played close to 40 minutes in his return. Daigneault understands that there was some problem, but didn’t want to comment without having a proper understanding of the injuries.

“He’s going to get checked out. I don’t deal in hypotheticals, especially when doctors are involved. I just let them tell us what’s going on. So, he’ll get checked out in the morning. We’ll see where he’s at,” the Thunder head coach told reporters. The best-case scenario would be Williams feeling temporary discomfort after going through a knarly double-overtime series opener. If it’s something bigger, the Thunder star may miss some more time to address the root cause of recurrence.

Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson was sailing in the same boat. “I do not have an update. Just know he went out when he took an awkward landing. I don’t know if he fell, but that awkward landing, and I just heard he wasn’t coming back,” Johnson shared. Dylan Harper’s case could be far more serious in comparison. He was willing to return, even jogging out of the locker room. However, with the Spurs medical staff holding him out in such a crucial game, it suggests there is either some concerning damage or a high risk of the rookie suffering a bigger injury.

Either way, life became really difficult for Johnson once Harper went out. The Spurs couldn’t contain their turnovers, and he relates it directly to the 20-year-old’s injury.

“This team is as good as anybody at turning you over. So, you’re down some of your primary creators and initiators, it causes a little bit of extra strain, whether that’s who to play, what to play, what to run, etc. And we’ll just have to be sharper in that area because it’s tough, fully loaded, against these guys,” Mitch Johnson added.

There’ll be more updates tomorrow, by which time both teams will have some results to work out the extent of the respective injuries. Hopefully, neither case is serious. This WCF clash basically feels like an NBA Finals, and no one would want injuries to affect the outcome of this enthralling series.