{"id":117799,"date":"2025-01-14T06:30:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T11:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=117799"},"modified":"2025-01-14T05:42:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T10:42:18","slug":"alex-caruso-return-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/14\/alex-caruso-return-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder Defensive Stalwart Expected Back From Injury Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder acquired guard Alex Caruso<\/a> in the offseason. The team thought he was a better fit than Josh Giddey<\/a>, who was involved in the deal and sent to the Chicago Bulls. The Thunder found Giddey to be unplayable at times in last season\u2019s playoffs.<\/p>\n

Caruso is known as one of the game\u2019s best perimeter defenders. Unfortunately, his first season with Oklahoma City has seen him in and out of the lineup, as he has been unavailable frequently. After a somewhat lengthy absence, Caruso will be available to play on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Thunder Defensive Stalwart Expected Back From Injury Tuesday<\/h2>\n

Alex Caruso Off Injury Report, Should Make Return On Tuesday<\/h3>\n

The last time that the 30-year-old Caruso appeared in a game for Oklahoma City was on December 23. The eight-year veteran has missed each of the last 10 outings due to a left hip strain. Caruso also missed games previous to those 10 this season because of a hip injury. He has appeared in just 20 of the Thunder\u2019s first 38 games.<\/p>\n

It sure is looking like Caruso won\u2019t miss an 11th straight game on Tuesday. The 6-foot-5 guard is not listed on the team\u2019s injury report ahead of their contest against the Philadelphia 76ers. It will only make a deep Oklahoma City team even deeper.<\/p>\n

While Caruso is more so known for his work on the defensive end, last season was a career-best one for him on the offensive end. He averaged a career-high 10.1 points while connecting on 40.8% of his three-point tries with Chicago. When in the lineup for Oklahoma City, he hasn\u2019t had nearly that success while the team is on offense.<\/p>\n

In his 20 outings, Caruso has posted averages of 5.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.9 steals, and 0.6 blocks in 19.9 minutes. He has shot 37.7% from the field, 26.2% from beyond the arc, and 77.8% from the free-throw line. While his shooting has paled in comparison to last season, Caruso has still been a defensive pest as evidenced by nearly two steals per game in slightly less than 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

In December, Caruso agreed on a four-year, $81.1 million<\/a> contract extension that will keep him in Oklahoma City through the 2028-29 season. He was named to the All-Defensive<\/a> First Team in 2022-23 and All-Defensive Second Team in 2023-24. Caruso was a major piece off the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers championship team in 2020.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City Has Been Clicking On All Cylinders All Season<\/h3>\n

The Thunder have been without Caruso for the last 10 games. They haven\u2019t had the 7-foot-1 Chet Holmgren<\/a> available to play<\/a> since November 10. Despite being without two key rotational pieces, the Thunder have just kept humming along.<\/p>\n

Their 32-6 record is just a game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for best in the entire NBA. They own a healthy six-game lead over the second-place Houston Rockets in the Western Conference. While Caruso and Holmgren are outstanding defensive players, the Thunder have remained the top defensive team in the league. Their 102.9<\/a> defensive rating is 3.8 points better than the Orlando Magic, who are in second.<\/p>\n

The Thunder have to go 33-11 the rest of the season to set a franchise-best regular season record<\/a> (went 64-18 as the Seattle SuperSonics in 1995-96). Alex Caruso\u2019s return to the lineup should only help their chances of doing so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder acquired guard Alex Caruso in the offseason. The team thought he was a better fit than Josh Giddey, who was involved in the deal and sent to the Chicago Bulls. The Thunder found Giddey to be unplayable at times in last season\u2019s playoffs. Caruso is known as one of the game\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":117831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,3,22],"tags":[2037,4292,4276],"class_list":["post-117799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-thunder","tag-alex-caruso","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-josh-giddey"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117832,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117799\/revisions\/117832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}