The Oklahoma City Thunder are hit with another painful injury blow, with Aleksej Pokusevski expected to miss several weeks after suffering a lower-body injury in last Tuesday's meeting against the San Antonio Spurs at home (via Tim MacMahon of ESPN).
Aleksej Pokuševski sustained a non-displaced tibial plateau fracture in his left leg and will be reevaluated in 6-8 weeks, Thunder announce.
Aleksej Pokusevski played in only two minutes in the Spurs game before exiting with the injury. He posted just three points, a rebound, and a block in that contest. Losing Pokusevski, even temporarily, hurts the Thunder, who have been getting good numbers from the 7-footer this season. So far in the 2022-23 NBA campaign, Pokusevski is averaging 8.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.3 blocks per game.
Aleksej Pokusevski now joins rookie Chelm Holmgren on the sidelines, leaving the Thunder's frontcourt stretched even thinner. Holmgren was declared done for the rest of the season before he even played his first regular-season game in the NBA after suffering an injury prior to the 2022-23 season.
Although the Thunder entered the season not expected to contend for even a spot in the NBA playoffs, the team still would have wanted to see more of Aleksej Pokusevski as part of his development. Poku remains an intriguing project for Oklahoma City, but if developed well, he could become an incredible weapon for the Thunder, given his combination of raw skill set and length.
In the meantime, the Thunder will try to cover the void left by Aleksej Pokusevski by giving Mike Muscala and Darius Bazley more minutes.
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