Spurs’ Dylan Harper (hamstring) exits Game 2 loss, set for MRI

OKLAHOMA CITY – Spurs rookie guard Dylan Harper suffered a right hamstring injury in the third quarter of Wednesday night’s 122-113 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, delivering yet another blow to San Antonio’s depleted backcourt.

Harper’s injury occurred after veteran guard De’Aaron Fox missed his second consecutive game because of a right high ankle sprain suffered in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals. Harper had been filling in for Fox in the starting lineup.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson couldn’t provide an update on Harper’s status for Friday’s Game 3. Sources told ESPN that Harper will undergo an MRI on Thursday in San Antonio.

“[Oklahoma City] is as good as anybody,” Johnson said, with the series now tied at 1 and headed back to the Spurs’ home court. “They turn you over. So, when you’re down some of your primary creators and initiators, it causes a little bit of an extra strain, whether that’s who to play, what to play, what to run, etc. It’s tough fully loaded against these guys.”

Complicating matters is the fact that Stephon Castle, the Spurs’ one remaining healthy lead guard, has committed 20 turnovers over the first two games of the series, the most miscues in a two-game span by a player in the playoffs since they were first tracked in 1977. San Antonio has turned over the ball 44 times total this series, with Oklahoma City scoring 55 points off the miscues.

“Steph is a dog,” Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson said. “He’ll figure it out. We support him every step of the way. [He] turned the ball over. We all turn the ball over. It’s not just on Steph.”

Castle has served as the primary ballhandler on 97 plays in the Western Conference finals: 54 in Game 1 and 43 in Game 2. He controlled the ball more as the primary ballhandler in those two games than he had in any previous game in the playoffs.

“It’s more personal on my end, just really speeding myself up, not allowing our screeners to get hits,” said Castle, who still produced his third game with 25-plus points and five-plus assists this postseason, the most by a Spur since 2017, when Kawhi Leonard tallied four such performances. “So, it’s putting me in a position where I have to play fast, or my screener might get an offensive foul. So, I’m putting us at a disadvantage to start the game with those. Some of it comes with fatigue, but at this point of the season, there’s really no excuse.”

Castle’s importance came into sharper focus when Harper fell to the court and grabbed at his right leg with 5:25 left in the third quarter after driving to the basket for a layup that was blocked by Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Harper was subbed out and replaced by Carter Bryant at 4:50 of the quarter.

Harper left the floor and headed to the locker room. He returned to the bench briefly before walking back toward the locker room.

As for Fox, he played through pain to finish Games 5 and 6 of the conference semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Fox participated in pregame warmups for the first two games of the West finals, but the team decided to hold out the nine-year vet, who is averaging 18.8 points, 5.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds this postseason after averaging 18.6 points, 6.2 assists and 3.8 rebounds during the regular season.

Prior to sitting out Games 1 and 2 of the West finals, Fox hadn’t missed a game since March 25 and had started 72 games in the regular season. San Antonio owns a record of 8-4 this season without Fox in the lineup.

“He’s just trying to play every day,” Mitch Johnson said. “It’s a tough injury that he wouldn’t be playing with in the regular season. So, he’s trying to tough it out. He did that in Minnesota. He had an awkward landing. So, he reaggravated it. We’ve just got to make sure he’s in a place that he can be out there and compete to the level that he would need to in the game that we’re playing.”

Harper, 20, was named to the league’s All-Rookie first team Wednesday and pieced together a brilliant performance in San Antonio’s Game 1 win over the Thunder with 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and a franchise playoff record seven steals. Harper committed only one turnover in that game and finished Game 2 with 12 points and three assists with one turnover in 25 minutes.

Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, the first player to average 30 points and 20 rebounds in the first two games of a playoff series since Shaquille O’Neal in the 2001 NBA Finals, admitted the team struggled without two of its top three ball handlers.

“We didn’t do a great job at it today, but we need [to] support for sure by taking care of the ball, helping the main ball handlers, and being aggressive,” Wembanyama said.

If Fox and Harper are unable to return Friday for Game 3, the Spurs will lean on backup guard Jordan McLaughlin and reserve forward Johnson to take on larger roles as ball handlers. McLaughlin played seven minutes in Game 2 while Johnson played 26 minutes.

“We’ve dealt with injuries a lot this season, and I always say this is the next man up mentality,” Spurs forward Devin Vassell said. “I don’t know what’s going on with Dylan. I don’t know the timetable [for a return]. I hope everything’s promising. Hopefully, Foxy is back in this [next] game. Right now, I have all the optimism that we’ll be good. Right now, I’m not speaking anything negative. I have faith we’ll be ready go Friday.”

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and ESPN Research contributed to this report.