Tyrese Maxey (back/finger) will remain out when the Sixers take on the juggernaut Thunder in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night, according to the Sixers’ initial injury report issued on Tuesday evening. Per the usual, the entire injury report is fairly long, even when excluding the four players who have been ruled out for the remainder of the season:
PlayerInjuryStatusTyrese Maxeyback/fingerOUTKelly Oubre Jr.kneeDOUBTFULKyle LowryhipOUTAndre DrummondtoeOUTLonnie Walker IVconcussionOUTGuerschon Yabusele
kneeQUESTIONABLEAdem Bona
ankle
OUT
Maxey was playing with a finger sprain dating back to February, and it drastically altered his jump-shooting mechanics. As Maxey continued to struggle in his attempt to play through that injury, he suffered another one, spraining his lower back on a hard fall on March 3.
While Maxey has not played since that fall, and many believe the logical decision would be to shut him down for the remainder of the season, whether or not that will actually be the case remains unclear, even in the wake of Paul George joining Joel Embiid in being sidelined for the rest of 2024-25.
In fact, before the Sixers departed Philadelphia for their six-game losing streak, head coach Nick Nurse said that while Maxey might not play early on in the trip, he did expect the team’s star guard to return to action at some point. Wednesday’s game in Oklahoma City will be the third leg of this trip, and it was supposed to be the toughest. Then, late Tuesday afternoon, the Thunder’s injury report was revealed.
PlayerInjuryStatusShai Gilgeous-AlexanderrestOUTJalen WilliamshipOUTLu Dorthip
OUTIsaiah HartensteinbackQUESTIONABLECason WallaceshoulderQUESTIONABLE
In the interest of fairness, Williams, the stellar young Thunder’s All-Star forward, was already dealing with a hip issue which has held him out of three consecutive games. He is genuinely injured. Dort, Oklahoma City’s other starting wing, left the team’s Saturday game early due to right hip soreness and did not play on Sunday for the same reason. He is genuinely injured.
Otherwise, it seems pretty clear what is happening. No team is rooting harder for a possible Sixers tank to backfire than Oklahoma City, who will own the Sixers’ first-round pick if it falls outside of the top six selections. Suddenly, the Sixers coming to town becomes a convenient rest spot for the MVP frontrunner Gilgeous-Alexander, while Hartenstein is questionable with lower back spasms after playing 32 minutes in his best game of the season on Sunday. Wallace has been terrific of late as well, including a season-high scoring performance on Sunday.
It is also worth mentioning that even if Hartenstein and Wallace do not play, Oklahoma City should have more than enough firepower to handle this version of the Sixers. Players like Chet Holmgren, Aaron Wiggins, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Joe are not listed on the injury report and very capable of stepping into larger roles when called upon. Even Jaylin Williams posted a triple-double in a spot start earlier this month when the Thunder rested many of their key pieces and still beat a competitive Portland Trail Blazers team.
MORE: Dissecting George’s disappointing debut season with Sixers; what are next steps?
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