Warriors Notes: Butler, Melton, Horford, Draymond, Spencer
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said prior to Thursday’s game in Philadelphia that Jimmy Butler underwent an MRI on his sore left knee, according Nick Friedell of The Athletic.
As Friedell writes, while the team doesn’t seem overly concerned about Butler’s knee, it remains to be seen when the 36-year-old forward will return to action — he missed the second half of Tuesday’s loss to Okalahoma City after experiencing the injury and was out Thursday as well.
Golden State has a road back-to-back this weekend, but then has four days off before its next game on December 12, which will likely be Stephen Curry‘s target return date.
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- De’Anthony Melton gave the Warriors a spark off the bench on Thurday in his season debut, recording 14 points, three assists, two steals and a block in 21 minutes of action. Kerr said before the game that Melton, who had been recovering from an ACL tear, would be on a restriction of approximately 20 minutes, per Friedell. “It’s been a long time since he’s played in an NBA game, so this is about getting his feet wet, finding a comfort zone out on the floor,” Kerr said. “You can scrimmage all you want, but it’s not like being in an NBA game. So I’m excited to get him back. He’s a hell of a player and he’s worked really hard in his rehab to get himself back to this point.”
- After missing the past four games with sciatica, Al Horford was active against his former team on Thursday and wound up making his first start of the season, tweets Anthony Slater of ESPN. While the 39-year-old big man struggled with his shot again, going 1-for-8 from the field (1-of-7 from long distance), he did chip in six rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block, and the team was plus-three in his 18 minutes.
- Forward/center Draymond Green injured his right foot late in the second quarter during Thursday’s one-point loss after Dominick Barlow fell on it (Twitter video link via NBC Sports Bay Area). The Warriors quickly ruled Green out at halftime, and while the former Defensive Player of the Year was in a walking boot in the locker room, he told Slater that he wants and expects to keep playing through the pain. Green sprained the same foot a couple weeks ago when Donovan Clingan landed on it, Slater notes.
- Golden State is now below .500 for the first time this season after dropping Thursday’s game, Slater adds. The Warriors, who are 11-12, mounted a furious comeback in the fourth quarter after trailing by as many as 26, only to see the bid fall short in the closing seconds of a chaotic and entertaining ending.
- One bright spot on Thursday was third-year guard Pat Spencer, who is on a two-way contract. He was instrumental in the comeback, recording 16 points (on 5-of-8 shooting), four rebounds and four assists, with the Warriors outscoring the 76ers by 16 points in his 24 minutes. After the game, Kerr said he’s hoping to see Spencer get promoted to a standard contract at some point — the 29-year-old has been active for all 23 games this season and can be available for up to 50 contests, as Slater relays (Twitter video link). “It would be great to find a way to get him on the (standard) roster,” Kerr said. Still, Kerr acknowledged it would be “tricky” to convert Spencer — the standard roster is now full after Golden State signed Seth Curry, and the team is operating only about $264K below its hard cap.
Stephen Curry To Miss Multiple Games With Quad Injury
2:57 pm: The Warriors have confirmed that Curry has a quad contusion and muscle strain, announcing (via Twitter) that he’ll be reevaluated in one week.
10:46 am: The Warriors expect Curry will miss about a week “or a little more,” sources tell Slater and Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The sense is that Curry has avoided a serious injury, but his return will depend on how the quad responds to treatment, Charania adds.
Based on that timeline, Curry figures to miss Saturday’s game vs. New Orleans and Tuesday’s matchup with Oklahoma City, but should have a chance to return during a three-game road trip that begins next Thursday in Philadelphia.
7:52 am: After checking out of Wednesday’s game vs. Houston and limping to the locker room with 35 seconds remaining, Warriors star Stephen Curry has received an initial diagnosis of a right quad contusion, writes ESPN’s Anthony Slater.
Curry will undergo an MRI to confirm whether that diagnosis is accurate and to determine the severity of the injury.
The two-time MVP was in clear pain after a pair of fourth-quarter collisions, Slater notes. Curry was knocked to the floor while defending Amen Thompson with 3:24 left in the game (video link via NBA.com), then ended up on the court again less than a minute later when he drove to the basket and was called for an offensive foul (video link).
Head coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the game that he was relieved the injury was to Curry’s quad rather than “an ankle or a knee,” but he admitted that it would present a challenge for the Warriors if their leading scorer has to sit out at all. And according to Nick Friedell of The Athletic, the sense in the locker room was that the injury will likely cost Curry at least a couple games.
“If Steph has to miss [time]?” Kerr said, per Slater. “It obviously changes everything — our rotations, how we’re playing, who we are playing through. We’ll see.”
Curry was one of two guards who exited Wednesday’s game early due to an injury. The Warriors announced during the second half that Gary Payton II, who played five minutes in the first two quarters, wouldn’t return to action due to a sprained left ankle.
The Rockets ended up pulling out a 104-100 victory, with the Warriors falling to .500 (10-10) as a result of a fourth loss in their past five games. Veterans Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green expressed frustration in their post-game media sessions with the way the team has been playing, especially on defense.
“We don’t box out,” Butler said (Twitter video link via Slater). “We don’t go with the scouting report. We let anybody do whatever they want — open shots, get into the paint, free throws. It’s just sad. … A lot of our hustle is dictated upon our offense. When we’re making shots, oh man, we’re celebrating, we’re cheering, doing all of those things. When we’re not or when the game’s not going our way, we put our head down and we mope and then we don’t box out, we don’t get back, we foul. We do all the bad things.”
When informed of Butler’s criticism of the defense, Green interjected to reply, “Our defense is s–t,” despite the fact that the Warriors technically rank in the top 10 in defensive rating.
“It’s not necessarily the numbers,” Green said (Twitter video link). “How do you feel when you out there? It’s just letdown after letdown. It’s bigger than the numbers. Defense is about demeanor. If there’s letdown, it kills your demeanor, it kills your bravado. Then you’re just a soft team.
“… It requires individuals – all of us as individuals – to take on your challenge,” Green continued. “If you take on your challenge, then we can make the team thing work. The only way the team’s going to work is if we take on individual challenges. We are individually – I know everybody likes to twist words – I said WE are individually f—ing awful.”
Warriors Notes: Kuminga, Green, Butler
Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga will miss his seventh consecutive game on Wednesday against the Rockets due to knee tendinitis. He told ESPN’s Anthony Slater he’ll be back in action “soon” (Twitter link).
Kuminga participated in some 3-on-3 scrimmages during Tuesday’s practice and will scrimmage on Wednesday as well. Warriors beat writer Monte Poole tweets.
Kuminga had played well prior to the injury, averaging 13.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Al Horford also won’t play on Wednesday due to a nerve issue.
We have more on the Warriors:
- Draymond Green has been upgraded to probable for Wednesday’s game, Slater tweets. Green sat out Monday’s 17-point win over the Jazz due to a foot sprain. Green holds a $27.7MM player option next offseason on the final year of his contract.
- Jimmy Butler had a highly efficient outing against Utah. He was a plus-19 in 28 minutes, scoring 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting with six rebounds and seven assists, Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area notes. Meanwhile, Lauri Markkanen — one of the players the Warriors coveted prior to last season before trading for Butler last winter — scored just 17 points on 31.6% shooting with smaller players guarding him. The game provided a reminder of why the Warriors have no regrets about taking their big trade-market swing on Butler, Johnson writes.
- In case you missed it, the Warriors now have enough room below their hard cap to sign a 15th man. However, every day they put off doing so creates a little more flexibility below that threshold.
Injury Notes: Warriors, Davis, Barrett, Sixers, Collins, Pacers
The Warriors will be without three important frontcourt players on Monday against Utah. In addition to center Al Horford, who will miss at least a week due to right sciatic nerve irritation, and forward Jonathan Kuminga, who has been unavailable since November 12 due to bilateral knee tendonitis, Draymond Green has been ruled out for Monday’s game due to a right foot sprain, per Anthony Slater of ESPN.
Green was listed as questionable before being downgraded to out, which may be a sign that his injury isn’t considered significant. Of course, Kuminga’s knee soreness also wasn’t intially viewed as a cause for much concern, but he’ll miss a sixth straight contest on Monday and his return isn’t necessarily imminent.
The Warriors had hoped he’d be able to practice on Sunday, but that didn’t happen, according to Slater, who adds that imaging on Kuminga’s knees came back clean, showing no structural damage.
“He said he’s not moving that well, so I can’t tell you what the outlook is,” head coach Steve Kerr said on Sunday. “He needs to feel better and be able to move better before we can put him out there.”
We have several more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Mavericks big man Anthony Davis will miss a 14th consecutive game due to a left calf strain on Monday, but head coach Jason Kidd said the plan is for Davis to take part in practice on Wednesday, writes Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal. Assuming Davis practices without a setback, his return shouldn’t be far off, Afseth notes.
- The imaging results on RJ Barrett‘s sprained right knee “look promising,” according to Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic (Twitter link via Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca). Barrett is out for Monday’s game vs. Cleveland but seems to have avoided a serious injury and is being considered day-to-day.
- Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe (left calf tightness) will miss a second consecutive game on Tuesday vs. Orlando, but center Joel Embiid (right knee injury management) has been upgraded to questionable, tweets Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports.
- The Bulls are hopeful that Zach Collins (left wrist surgery) will be able to practice with contact this week, according to Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic (Twitter link), who says Collins has a chance to return during the team’s post-Thanksgiving road trip that begins on Friday and runs through next Monday.
- Pacers guards Johnny Furphy (left ankle sprain) and Quenton Jackson (right hamstring strain) could be back in action within the next couple weeks, head coach Rick Carlisle said today (Twitter links via Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star). Carlisle added that rookie Kam Jones has recovered from his back injury, but is still in the ramp-up process and could play for the Noblesville Boom in the G League before making his NBA debut.
Al Horford Out At Least A Week With Sciatic Injury
Al Horford will miss at least a week for the Warriors with sciatica, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area (via Twitter).
The injury is being classified as right sciatic nerve irritation, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter link), who notes that Horford will be out for at least three games: Monday vs. Utah, Wednesday vs. Houston, and Saturday vs. New Orleans.
Horford is currently averaging the fewest minutes, points, rebounds, and assists per game of his career, as well as his lowest three-point percentage in 11 seasons, as he adjusts to coming off the bench for Golden State.
Sciatica is the same type of medical issue that kept LeBron James sidelined for the Lakers’ first 14 games, though the wording on Horford seems to suggest that his ailment is less severe than James’ was.
The Warriors have cooled off since their 4-1 start to the season and are now 9-9 after losing their last three games. Horford’s injury will provide yet another test for Golden State’s frontcourt depth, as Jonathan Kuminga remains out with knee tendonitis and Draymond Green is listed as questionable for Monday’s game with a foot sprain.
Bam Adebayo Cleared To Return For Heat
Heat star Bam Adebayo will return to action on Wednesday vs. Golden State, the team announced, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter link).
Adebayo has been out since November 5, having missed Miami’s past six contests due to a left big toe sprain. The team held its own in his absence, winning four of six games and registering a pair of two-point victories over the conference-rival Knicks and Cavaliers during that stretch.
In his seven healthy games this season, Adebayo averaged 22.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game, with a .462/.356/.861 shooting line. He was averaging 6.4 three-point attempts per night in those first seven outings, which would be a career high by far — he shot 2.8 shots threes per game in 2024/25 after attempting a total of just 104 in his first seven seasons.
Kel’el Ware has been starting at center with Adebayo out and has recorded four consecutive double-doubles, with averages of 15.0 PPG and 14.3 RPG during that stretch. Ware and Adebayo started alongside one another five times earlier in the season, so Adebayo’s return doesn’t necessarily mean that head coach Erik Spoelstra will move the second-year big man back to the bench.
Either way, Ware figures to play a significant role, since the Heat will be monitoring Adebayo’s minutes in his first game back, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (Twitter link). Additionally, while Adebayo will be backin action , the Heat won’t have a fully healthy frontcourt, as Nikola Jovic (hip) will miss Wednesday’s game, tweets Winderman.
The Heat will be taking on a shorthanded Warriors team. After previously ruling out Stephen Curry (right ankle soreness), Al Horford (left toe injury management), and Jonathan Kuminga (bilateral patellar tendonitis), Golden State has also downgraded Jimmy Butler (right low back strain) and Draymond Green (illness) to out, tweets Anthony Slater of ESPN.
Pacific Notes: LeBron, Curry, Warriors, Sabonis, Livers
Lakers forward LeBron James only took seven shots from the floor in his season debut on Tuesday vs. Utah, but he racked up 12 assists in a 140-126 victory and extended his NBA-record streak of double-digit scoring performances to 1,293 consecutive games, writes ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. Most importantly, James played 30 minutes after missing the first month of the season due to sciatica and didn’t experience any setbacks.
“The pace tested me, but I was happy with the way I was able to go with the guys,” James said. “As the game went on, my wind got a lot better. Caught my second wind, caught my third wind. Rhythm is still coming back, obviously. First game in almost seven months, so everything that happened tonight was to be expected.”
For a separate ESPN story, McMenamin spoke to 10 sources inside and outside of the Lakers’ organization to get a sense of what they’re monitoring with James back on the floor, including how the return of the four-time MVP will impact the team’s role players and whether the high-scoring duo of Luka Doncic (34.6 PPG) and Austin Reaves (28.1 PPG) will keep rolling. Not all of those sources were in agreement on certain topics, including Deandre Ayton‘s fit alongside James, McMenamin notes.
“Ayton should benefit the most out of LeBron back,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “LeBron makes people look good. [He’ll feed Ayton] lobs and dump-offs at the rim.”
“I imagine Deandre’s going to be a problem. He’s just not smart enough of a player,” a Western Conference exec countered. “And the inconsistent effort, LeBron usually has issues with, to say the least.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific Division:
- Stephen Curry (right ankle soreness) will sit out the Warriors‘ game vs. Miami on Wednesday after tweaking his ankle a couple times during the team’s recent road trip, tweets Anthony Slater of ESPN. Golden State could end up very shorthanded on the second night of a back-to-back — Al Horford (left toe injury management) and Jonathan Kuminga (bilateral patellar tendonitis) are both out, while Jimmy Butler (right low back strain), Draymond Green (illness), and Buddy Hield (illness) are all considered questionable to play.
- The Kings will be without center Domantas Sabonis on Wednesday vs. Oklahoma City due to left knee soreness, tweets Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. It will be the fourth missed game of the season for Sabonis, who has also dealt with hamstring and rib injuries.
- Back in the NBA this fall after a lengthy absence due to hip problems, forward Isaiah Livers is grateful to be playing a role for the Suns and isn’t concerned about keeping track of his active games, tweets Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. A player on a two-way contract can be on his team’s active roster for a maximum of 50 games — Livers is at 11 so far. “I’m not counting,” Livers said. “I’m taking it one day at a time. We all know my story. I’m just blessed and grateful to put a uniform back on and help an organization win games. We’ll worry about the rest later.”
Western Notes: LeBron, Vincent, Draymond, Kuminga, Holiday, More
After participating in this morning’s shootaround, Gabe Vincent (left ankle sprain) has been upgraded to available for the first time since October 26, while LeBron James (sciatica) is being considered a game-time decision when the Lakers host the Jazz on Tuesday night, tweets Dan Woike of The Athletic.
James, who practiced with the Lakers on Monday, said his lungs felt “like a newborn baby” and that he was still working on getting his conditioning and his voice back to normal, writes Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group.
“I got to get my lungs back up to a grown man,” James said. “My voice is already gone. One day back, barking out calls and assignments and stuff, getting my voice working again. Be a lot of tea and rest (on Monday night).”
James’ record-setting 23rd NBA season has been delayed by sciatica on his right side, which forced him to miss the start of a season for the first time in his career. The 40-year-old told reporters, including Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times, that he also dealt with sciatica two years ago, referring to it as “not fun.”
“If you ever had it, you go about it and you wake up one day and you hope that when you step down from the bed that you don’t feel it,” LeBron said. “You go to bed at night, and you hope that when you’re in the bed that you don’t feel it. So I’ve been doing pretty good with it as of late. There’s a lot of exercises and a lot of mobility things and a lot of things you can do to help it. So I’m just keeping a positive mindset.”
James will go through his normal pregame routine in the hopes of playing on Tuesday, per Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter video link).
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Warriors forward Draymond Green wasn’t fined for his face-to-face altercation with a fan who was heckling him in New Orleans on Sunday (Twitter video link), but the NBA did issue a warning over the incident, a source tells Charania (Twitter link). “He just kept calling me a woman,” Green said of the fan after the game, per Nick Friedell of The Athletic. “It was a good joke at first but you can’t keep calling me a woman. I got four kids, one on the way; you can’t keep calling me a woman. He got quiet, though. So, it was fine.” The fan told The Associated Press that he was chanting “Angel Reese” at Green after the Warriors veteran rebounded several of his own missed shots.
- Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga (bilateral patellar tendonitis) will miss a third consecutive game on Tuesday when the team faces the Magic in Orlando, tweets Anthony Slater of ESPN. Reporting last week indicated that there are no structural concerns with Kuminga’s knees and that the forward’s absence should be “relatively short-term.”
- Trail Blazers guard Jrue Holiday missed Sunday’s game – a loss to Dallas – and is listed as doubtful to play on Tuesday vs. Phoenix due to right calf soreness (Twitter link). As Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report (subscription required) writes, Holiday’s absence on Sunday was especially impactful because so many of Portland’s other point guards are sidelined due to injuries too. “Jrue is our core,” Blazers forward Deni Avdija said. “I feel like he does everything on the floor. He puts us in our positions. He’s a real true point guard and a leader. When he’s out of the game, it’s definitely felt.”
- Jahmai Mashack‘s new two-way contract with the Grizzlies is for two years, while Jamaree Bouyea‘s two-way deal with the Suns is for the rest of the season, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Bouyea was ineligible for a two-year contract because this will be his fourth season in the NBA.
Draymond Green Challenges Warriors’ Commitment To Winning
The Warriors finished last season 23-8 after the Jimmy Butler trade, then opened the 2025/26 campaign with four wins in their first five games. However, they’ve since dropped five of seven, prompting forward Draymond Green to suggest after Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City that Golden State isn’t taking the same team-first approach that was so successful down the stretch last season.
“I think everybody was committed to winning [back then] and doing that any way possible,” Green said, per Anthony Slater of ESPN. “Right now, it doesn’t feel that way.
“… I think everyone has a personal agenda in this league,” Green continued. “But you have to make those personal agendas work within the team confines. If it doesn’t work, you kind of got to get rid of your agenda or eventually the agenda is the cause of someone getting rid of you.”
Green didn’t single out any specific teammates who he believes are letting “personal agendas” get in the way of winning — when Slater approached him for follow-up questions after his general media session, the former Defensive Player of the Year simply said that “everyone” has to take some responsibility for the team’s recent slide.
However, as Slater points out, Brandin Podziemski spoke repeatedly before the season about his career ambitions, including his goal to be “better than” Stephen Curry, while a desire for a more significant role was a major factor in Jonathan Kuminga‘s restricted free agency standoff with the Warriors. So when a veteran gripes about “personal agendas,” those younger players tend to fall under the spotlight first, Slater notes.
After a strong start to the season, Kuminga has slowed down in the past couple weeks, shooting just 44.4% from the floor (25.0% on three-pointers) and committing more than three turnovers per game, including five in 24 minutes on Tuesday. Head coach Steve Kerr and Butler have both spoken about a need to take better care of the ball and not trying to do too much with it, as Slater relays.
“Myself, I can’t have turnovers,” Butler said. “JK can’t have turnovers. … We’re the ones that have to keep our turnovers down.”
While Green’s comments presumably weren’t aimed at his longtime teammate Curry, the star guard was willing to shoulder his share of the blame after struggling in his return to action on Tuesday after a three-game absence due to an illness. In 20 minutes, Curry scored just 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting and committed five fouls. He was a -23 in a game the team lost by 24 points.
“I kind of fell into [the agenda thing] a little bit myself,” Curry said. “Trying to get myself going. But the bigger issue when you lose is you start to look around and figure out what’s the issue. Commitment to winning is just running the floor, rebounding, taking care of the basketball. It’s not really about shots going in or not.”
All six of the Warriors’ losses so far this season have come on the road — they’re 5-0 at home. However, they’ll get no help from the schedule in the near future. They’ll play in San Antonio on Wednesday and Friday, New Orleans on Sunday, Orlando next Tuesday, and Miami next Wednesday before finally returning to the Bay Area for a five-game home stand.
Pacific Notes: Ellis, Leonard, Curry, Warriors
Keon Ellis is trying to be philosophical about his reduced role in the Kings‘ rotation, writes Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. Ellis logged just 12 minutes of action in Friday’s loss to Oklahoma City — all in the fourth quarter of a blowout — continuing a trend that has seen him reach 20 minutes in just three of the team’s first nine games.
Biderman notes that Ellis had reason to expect a more prominent position after finishing second on the team in three-point percentage last season at 43% and ranking second in the league with 280 deflections. Ellis provides a level of perimeter defense that the team has been lacking while ranking 25th in defensive efficiency, 28th in deflections and 28th in contested shots coming into Friday’s game.
“Because I know if I go out there, I do what I do,” Ellis responded when asked about his playing time. “If I don’t go out there, it is what it is. I control what I can control.”
The Kings added Dennis Schröder and Russell Westbrook to their backcourt during the offseason, and they’re both playing ahead of Ellis. Westbrook has been putting up vintage numbers lately, including 24 points, nine assists and six rebounds Friday night after posting a triple-double on Wednesday, but Schröder hasn’t been as effective. The Kings have been outscored by 85 points in the 287 minutes he has played and they have a minus-9.9 net rating when he’s on the court. Biderman states.
“It’s a numbers game,” coach Doug Christie said. “There’s a big logjam there. Night to night, it could be different. It’s not going to be any easier once you get Keegan (Murray) back. But this is a good problem to have. It’s one that hasn’t been here for a long time when you talk about wing players and the ability to have them. Keon’s a pro so I know he’ll be ready and prepared.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Kawhi Leonard will miss “the next few games” with a sprained right ankle, according to The Associated Press. Lue didn’t provide any specifics about Leonard’s condition, but he stated that medical tests are indicating it won’t be a prolonged absence.
- After missing two games with an illness, Warriors star Stephen Curry is listed as questionable for Sunday’s meeting with Indiana, per Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle. Curry started feeling fatigued in the second half of Tuesday’s contest and didn’t travel with the team on its two-game trip to Sacramento and Denver. Al Horford is also questionable after being scratched from Friday’s game due to a left foot strain.
- Draymond Green was critical of the Warriors‘ defense, and coach Steve Kerr lamented “a lack of purpose and energy” following Friday’s loss at Denver, relays Nick Friedell of The Athletic. Golden State fell behind early and wasn’t able to fight back in a 129-104 defeat. “There has to be some fire in the belly to get out of a tough night,” Kerr said. “It’s tough as a young player when things aren’t going their way, the game’s not going their way, it’s easy to get down. You can’t do that in this league. You have to fight and compete every second, and it didn’t feel like we did that tonight.”