Eight Men Out

Happy Monday, Thunder fans! Welcome back to The Graham Jam newsletter.

Your Oklahoma City Thunder are now 18-44 after a tough Sunday-night matchup with the Utah Jazz, who boast the best offense in the league. OKC kept things pretty close and made it interesting in the fourth quarter, despite trailing the Jazz by up to 23 points during the contest.

But every time the Thunder pulled within single-digits again, the Jazz answered — usually with another 3-pointer from Bojan Bogdanovich, who sank a career-high 11 3s in the game to finish with 35 points. Jazz star Donovan Mitchell had 24.

The good news is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had another huge night, racking up 33 points of his own on 11-of-23 shooting and sinking 11 free throws on 12 attempts. It was the fifth time, in six games since the All-Star break, that SGA scored at least 30 points. The exception? A 29-point effort in OKC's shocking road win over Denver on March 2.

In this week's Graham Jam, we'll look at the team's depleted roster and play another round of Tank Time. Let's go!

Last week

Sacramento 131, Thunder 110 (2/28 HOME)

Thunder 119, Denver 107 (3/2 AWAY)

Minnesota 138, Thunder 101 (3/4 HOME)

Utah 116, Thunder 103 (3/6 HOME)

Eight men out

The Thunder have been playing hard lately, but are missing key contributors that would help. Nearly half the lineup, in fact, has been out of commission for the past week. When one player got healthy enough to come back on Sunday, another one was a late scratch. In total, the Thunder's injury report has been eight players long for the past few games.

With 15 players on full contracts for each NBA team, plus two two-way players, that left OKC with just nine players on its active roster for tough games against Denver, Minnesota and Utah.

Those injured Thunder players are:

• Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (foot fracture)
• Mike Muscala (ankle)
• Josh Giddey (hip soreness)
• Derrick Favors (back)
• Luguentz Dort (shoulder)
• Kenrich Williams (knee)
• Ty Jerome (hip)

Before Sunday's game, Aaron Wiggins returned after missing the previous two games. OKC expected to be up to 10 players; however, Isaiah Roby (back soreness) was a game-time scratch, bringing the Thunder back down to nine guys.

If you're wondering which players actually were available Sunday night, that would be: Wiggins, Gilgeous-Alexander, Darius Bazley, Tre Mann, Aleksej Pokusevski, Theo Maledon, Olivier Sarr, Lindy Waters III and Vit Krejci.

It's very difficult to win with such a thinned-out rotation, especially when players like Krejci and Maledon see their minutes increased dramatically over a short period of time. Krejci played more than 20 minutes on Sunday but averages just about 13.5 for the season in 11 games.

Still, Wednesday's stunner over reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets proves that it's not impossible. Oklahoma City will hope to get more players back for a tough Tuesday game against the Bucks.

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said Saturday that Giddey will be out for another two weeks, at least, but he hopes to have the star rookie back before the season ends.

Tank Time

If you haven't seen it, I'd encourage you all to check out Joe Mussatto's piece about Tankathon.com that appeared in The Oklahoman this weekend. Mussatto explains how the website came about and why it's important for Thunder fans this season.

But of course, if you've been reading this newsletter, you already know why! So let's run another simulation and see where OKC shakes out this week in a projection of the 2022 NBA Draft Lottery. Here we go:

1. Sacramento (+5 from current record)

2. Atlanta (+11)

3. Orlando (-2)

4. Indiana (+1)

5. Houston (-3)

6. Detroit (-1)

7. Oklahoma City (-3)

8. San Antonio (-1)

9. New York (-1)

10. Portland (-1)

11. Portland (via New Orleans, -1)

12. Memphis (via LA Lakers, -1)

13. Washington (-1)

14. Houston (via Brooklyn)

A truly worst-case scenario for the Thunder, who fall as far as any team in this simulation while Sacramento, and especially Atlanta, have enormous good fortune.

With the league's fourth-worst record, OKC would have a 48.1% chance to pick inside the top five if the season ended today. The Thunder are very likely to hold onto that No. 4 spot in the reverse standings, though the Pacers could pass them and send them to No. 5.

A 48.1% chance is nice, but it's still under 50/50, and this nightmare No. 7 scenario is one Thunder fans should brace themselves for as a possibility.

That's all from me this week, folks. Let's hope for good health from the Thunder moving forward, and enjoy watching OKC take on great players like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant this week! Thunder Up!

This week

3/8: Thunder vs. Milwaukee, 7 p.m., Bally Sports Oklahoma

3/9: Thunder @ Minnesota, 7 p.m., BSOK

3/13: Thunder vs. Memphis, 6 p.m., BSOK