The players on the court Tuesday in San Antonio will resemble a Warriors team in name only.
On the second night of a back-to-back, the Warriors will be without several key players. Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson, Otto Porter Jr. and Nemanja Bjelica will all sit. Draymond Green, James Wiseman and Andre Iguodala are also out, as expected.
Curry most recently dropped 40 points over Houston on Monday, including a 21-point eruption in the fourth quarter. The two-time MVP is listed as out with left toe soreness.
Wiggins’ name on the injury report is particularly eye-catching. The first-time All-Star is an iron-man; he missed just one game in his first four years in the league and played 71 of 72 contests last season. Tuesday will be his seventh missed game of the year.
Wiggins is listed as out with left knee soreness. Porter Jr. is managing a left foot injury and the Warriors don’t plan for Thompson to play in backends of back-to-backs any time soon.
The injury to watch is Draymond Green’s. He’s been out since Jan. 9 with an L5-S1 disc injury that caused discomfort in his left calf. While he said recently on TNT that he’s feeling much better and had begun to get shots up, there’s been no official update from the team — as previously expected.
Tuesday will be Green’s 14th straight missed game, including the Cavaliers contest in which he played seven seconds. It’ll be Iguodala’s seventh straight night off, though Steve Kerr said he’s confident the veteran will return when the Warriors come back to Chase Center later this week.
Without so many mainstays against San Antonio, expect Jordan Poole to run the show, with rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody seeing increased playing time. The injuries leave GSW with eight available players: Poole, Kuminga, Moody, Kevon Looney, Damion Lee, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Gary Payton II and Chris Chiozza.
The Warriors host the Kings on Thursday, then don’t play again until next Monday. Curry, Wiggins, Thompson and others, will play one game in six days — a rare respite in a typically grueling NBA schedule.