That sound you hear might be Thunder fans groaning about Paul George’s groin

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s fight to stay afloat in a jam-packed Western Conference looks to be in trouble as Paul George left Tuesday’s game against the Hawks with a groin injury.

The last thing the Oklahoma City Thunder needed was to lose Paul George to injury.

Not with the Western Conference playoff race so tight. Not with the Thunder looking like a potential spoiler for the championship aspirations of the higher seeds.

Alas, that’s exactly what they got on Tuesday night against the Hawks.

The timing of the injury could not be worse for the Thunder, as they are coming off the loss of Steven Adams in Monday’s game against the Sacramento Kings. They are also without Andre Roberson, who is out with a season ending knee injury.

With 12 games remaining in the regular season, the Thunder are looking to hold onto their fourth seed in a monstrously packed Western Conference. They currently sit behind the Rockets, Warriors and Trailblazers who have won a whopping 10 straight games.

It isn’t the teams in front they have to worry about, though. The Timberwolves and the Pelicans both sit just half a game back, the Clippers sit two games back, and three teams sit only 2.5 games back of the fourth seed.

Was it mentioned that those three teams were the Utah Jazz, who are having one of the greatest statistical comeback seasons in the modern era, the Denver Nuggets who are being led by second-year guard Jamal Murray, and the San Antonio Spurs? That’s the same Spurs team that is looking to potentially have All-Star Kawhi Leonard back into the lineup for the last stretch.

That is a total of seven teams all within 2.5 games of each other for those all important top eight seeds. That leaves room for only five of those seven teams.

With the undetermined severity of the injury sustained by George and potential multi-injury situation for Steven Adams, the Thunder will have to hunker down harder than they have all season if they want to survive.

The Thunder will ultimately hold their destiny in their own hands down the stretch. In the 12 remaining regular season games, they have seven games in which they face a contending Western Conference team.

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Will Brodie and Melo be able to put the team on their backs if needed? Many questions will be answered in the next 12 games — and some of the answers might hinge on the status of George’s groin.