Injuries Becoming An Issue Again For Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder running through various drills on Wednesday. (Photo By: Randy Renner/InsideThunder.com)

By Randy Renner, Senior Writer

The Thunder just can’t seem to shake the injury bug which has now bitten them quite literally from head to toe and several places in between.

Center Steven Adams, who had recovered sufficiently enough from his sprained right ankle that he likely would have played against the Mavericks had it been a regular season game, went down in a heap during a 3-on-3 workout toward the end of the Thunder’s Wednesday practice session.

Adams had gone up for a dunk but something went wrong and when he came down he collapsed to the floor.

Adams immediately got back up but limped off the court and into the trainers’ room. On his way he kicked out with his right foot so it wasn’t immediately clear if Adams had re-injured his right ankle or something else.

Head coach Billy Donovan wasn’t sure about that either.

“I guess it’s his ankle, I’m not sure as to what degree. I just walked back there and checked on him and he’s sitting back there getting some treatment,” Donovan told reporters a short while later. “I don’t think it’s anything too severe, at least that’s the first impression.”

Donovan wasn’t even totally sure if it was Adams’ right ankle again or perhaps the left one this time. Team doctors have been cautious with Adams since he sprained his right ankle last week during the game with Real Madrid.

Adams told reporters Monday it was one of the worst sprains he’d had.

“Usually I can just run them off and deal with them afterwards,” he said then. “But this one was a little bit different.”

And again, the Thunder haven’t said if the problem now is again with the right ankle or with the left.

One thing that is for sure is that Ronnie Price has gone into the NBA’s concussion protocol after leaving the Mavs game midway through the 4th quarter.

“The biggest thing for him right now is getting back to his baseline and however long that takes,” Donovan said. The NBA has a series of steps and progressions athletes must reach in their recovery process. It’s something that could only take a couple of days or something that could linger for a week or more.

Andre Roberson (sore knee) and Mitch McGary (sore foot) were both on the practice floor working when reporters were allowed in. Neither appeared to be limited physically but Donovan wasn’t ready to pronounce them ready to play either.

“It’s just precautionary with Andre, we don’t think it’s anything too severe,” Donovan advised. “It’s just more precautionary and we’ll see how he responds with some rest and we’ll see how he’s feeling (Thursday).”

Of course backup point guard Cameron Payne is out for the next couple of months with a broken right foot.

Those health issues, especially with Adams and Roberson who are starters, will go a long way toward dictating whether Donovan is able to use any of the three remaining preseason games as a dress rehearsal of sorts leading into the season opener at Philadelphia.

“Yeah it’s been a little bit hard because we’ve had guys out,” Donovan admitted. “So we’ll see how we come out of the game Thursday, where we’re at healthwise then do we throw all those main guys in and guys that we know are gonna be out there, do we put ‘em together? But a lot of that is gonna depend on where we’re at physically.”

Right now where they’re at isn’t a particularly good place, but at least it’s a familiar one.