Warriors Notes: Dunleavy, Butler, Green, Horford
The Warriors turned their season around last February by acquiring Jimmy Butler from Miami, but general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. doesn’t expect to make another deal of that magnitude, relays Vince Lontz of NBC Sports Bay Area. During an appearance on “Warriors Pregame Live” before Monday’s game, Dunleavy admitted it would be difficult to pull off another blockbuster trade.
“We’ll look to do stuff that makes our team better,” he said. “But I wouldn’t bank on that type of move. To get a guy like Jimmy Butler, to have the improvement that we did … that’d be pretty unrealistic.”
Golden State was in position to pounce on Butler after the Heat weren’t able to work out a deal to send him to Phoenix, which was reported to be his preferred destination. Butler had an immediate impact on the Warriors, sparking them to a 23-8 finish and a first-round playoff victory.
While Dunleavy doesn’t expect to repeat that success, he hopes to find a way to solve the team’s issue with turnovers. Golden State is one of the league’s worst teams in that category with 16.2 per game, and it has contributed to the disappointing 15-15 record.
“We’ve got to start taking care of the ball,” Dunleavy said. “We’re doing some really good stuff defensively. People talk a lot about our size, between Quinten (Post) and Draymond (Green), when those two are in the game our rim protection is fantastic. When (Stephen Curry)’s off the court, and Jimmy’s on with the group, our offense is pretty good.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Apart from small-ball lineups, Butler and Green have been more effective this season when they’re not on the court at the same time, according to Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle (subscription required). Gordon notes that since their last small-ball start on December 2, Butler and Green have a minus-24.2 net rating in 51 combined minutes. Gordon finds that the most effective lineups have Butler surrounded by shooters and ball-handlers. “I think (coach Steve Kerr) will continue to try to figure out the right combinations,” Curry said, “but the style of — me, Jimmy and Draymond can play together all the time because we know each other so well. Those other two guys, he’s trying to figure out the right combinations there. I know you want me and Jimmy on the floor at all times, and Jimmy with shooting is kind of reflective of when he was at his greatest in Miami. We just have to understand what we’re trying to do with whoever is on the floor and not think the same play calls work for 48 minutes.”
- Constant matchups against bigger players may be wearing on Green, ESPN’s Marc J. Spears suggested in an appearance on NBA Today (Twitter video link). “I’m hearing to that Draymond’s a little frustrated with having to guard centers and having the guys that are 40, 50 pounds heavier than him on a nightly basis,” Spears said. The Warriors added Al Horford in free agency to give Green more time at power forward, but injuries have limited Horford to just 13 games so far.
- Saturday’s ejection and Monday’s shouting match with Kerr have made headlines, but the biggest problem with Green is his diminished skill set, writes Nick Friedell of The Athletic. To be successful, the Warriors need to recognize Green is no longer the star he used to be and find ways to take advantage of the things he still does well, Friedell states.
- Horford is expected to return for the Christmas Day game against Dallas after missing the past three weeks due to sciatica, Friedell tweets.
Warriors Notes: Green, Kerr, Horford, Melton, Richard
The Warriors picked up a second straight victory on Monday, beating Orlando by 23 points to get back to .500 (15-15). As Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, Golden State got exactly the kind of tag-team performance it wanted to see from Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, who led the team with 26 and 21 points, respectively.
However, the big story of the night was a third-quarter spat between head coach Steve Kerr and Draymond Green. The two men engaged in a heated argument in a team huddle during a timeout (Twitter video link), resulting in Green leaving the court and not playing for the game’s final 20 minutes, as Anthony Slater of ESPN details. Kerr said after the game that he and Green “had it out a little bit” and that it was the forward’s decision to head to the locker room to “cool off.”
“Tempers spilled over, and I thought it was best that I get out of there,” Green confirmed. “I don’t think it was a situation where it was going to get better. It was best to remove myself.”
According to Slater, teammates Butler, Al Horford, and Buddy Hield checked on Green during the third quarter and the former Defensive Player of the Year returned to the bench in the fourth quarter. He remained on the sidelines for the rest of the night, with Kerr explaining to reporters that he didn’t seriously consider reinserting Green into the game.
“No, he wasn’t going back in,” Kerr said. “No. He left. He went back to the locker room. We moved forward, and the guys played great.”
Green’s play has been under a microscope lately due largely to his turnover issues — he committed a combined 13 turnovers in the Warriors’ two most recent losses, and Golden State has been outscored during his time on the court in his past six games (including by five points on Monday).
Still, Kerr said he thought Green played well in the first half vs. Orlando and stressed that the team “needs” the 35-year-old going forward. For his part, Green downplayed the incident and suggested he didn’t think there would be any lingering effects.
“We’ve been at this now for a long time,” Green said. “Sometimes you’re with people for a long time and there’s a level of comfort and s–t happens. We move forward.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Horford, who has played just once in the past month as he dealt with sciatica, could be back in action for the Christmas Day game vs. Dallas, Kerr said on Monday (Twitter link via Slater).
- Guard De’Anthony Melton has played between 15 and 21 minutes in each of his seven appearances since making his season debut following his recovery from an ACL tear. According to Kerr, Melton could play more than that if needed, but the head coach’s preference would be to keep him in that 20-minute range for now (Twitter link via Slater).
- In a profile for The Athletic, Nick Friedell takes a look at rookie Will Richard‘s path to the NBA, detailing how the guard transformed his body in high school and then capped off his college career with a national championship. “He’s a winner,” Butler said of his teammate. “He’s hella smart. But I think the thing that I love the most about Will is his ability to listen. You tell him what to do, to the best of his ability he’s going to do it. … It’s really hard to try to please everybody because you can be told five different things from five different people, and he’s the type of human being that’s going to try to do all five of those things that everybody’s telling him. They could totally contradict each other, but he’s a hellafied listener.”
- Kerr remains confident about the Warriors’ ability to contend in the Western Conference despite the team’s up-and-down start to the season, per Friedell. “Look, our goal coming into the season was to be a top-four seed, and I still think it’s well within our reach,” Kerr said on Sunday. “But it can be daunting if you look and you go, ‘Man, we’re five, six games back.’ But we know how fast things can flip if we can take care of our business and find some momentum because everybody else is gonna go through tough stretches too.”
Warriors Notes: Green, Kerr, Curry, Richard, Hield
Draymond Green’s ejection early in the second quarter of Saturday’s game wound up being a turning point for the Warriors, who rallied for a win over Phoenix, writes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. Golden State trailed by 11 points when its volatile leader was tossed for picking up a pair of quick technical fouls, but the sequence sparked a rally that led to the end of a three-game losing streak.
“Sometimes we take advantage of Draymond, what he does for us, and we count on him to clean up everything,” Gary Payton II said. “But once he’s out of there, we know we all got to come together and do it collectively. I think everybody felt that. And when we’re doing that as a unit, we can be pretty damn good.”
Green got his first technical for pushing Suns guard Collin Gillespie in transition (YouTube link). The next one came seconds later when Green taunted lead official Pat Fraher, resulting in an automatic ejection.
Phoenix scored 44 points and registered five dunks in the first quarter, according to Poole. The Warriors’ defensive effort picked up after the incident as they held the Suns to a combined 31.8% from the field in the second and third quarters.
“I think it woke us up,” Stephen Curry said. “Because we knew without him, we’re going to have to play even tougher, dig deeper down the rotation. I think everybody was kind of on alert and trying to have his back.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Coach Steve Kerr called Green’s ejection “weak” on the part of the officials and compared it to an incident from the teams’ prior matchup on Thursday, per Nick Friedell of The Athletic. Kerr is still fuming about a play late in that game where he claims Dillon Brooks hit Curry with a “premeditated” punch to the stomach. Brooks was assessed a flagrant 1 foul after a video review, but wasn’t ejected. “How can you not be upset? This is a guy who broke Gary’s elbow in the playoffs, clotheslining him with one of the dirtiest plays I’ve ever seen,” Kerr said. “So it’s not like there’s not a track record there, and it’s right there, they look at it. I don’t know what the point of replay is if you’re not gonna kick a guy out for literally punching somebody. It’s bizarre to me that he was not, first of all, ejected from that game, and then suspended or fined. Nothing. Nothing.”
- In an interview with Zena Keita of “The Athletic Show,” Kerr expresses gratitude for being able to coach Curry and Green for so long, relays Jordy Fee-Platt of The Athletic. Kerr reveals that he nearly worked out a draft-day deal to bring Curry to Phoenix in 2009 when he was serving as general manager of the Suns. Kerr also states that even though he’s in the final year of his contract, he has no plans to retire while Curry is still active. “I will never leave Steph Curry,” he said.
- Rookie guard Will Richard contributed 20 points in the victory, but he only played because Kerr chose to end Buddy Hield‘s long streak of consecutive games, Poole notes in a separate story. Hield was a healthy scratch for the first time since joining the Warriors last season. “I told him beforehand, I feel terrible, he had a streak of 199 games in a row, it was one of the longest streaks in the league and one of the things I love about Buddy is he’s there for you every single night,” Kerr said. “He’s the greatest teammate ever and just an amazing spirit and a key part of our team, and it felt terrible not to play him, but I sat Will the last five or six games and we needed to get him back out there and you can see why. Buddy’s time will come back around, it always does. He has got the right attitude, he’s going to keep working and getting shots up and I know things will work out for him.”
Warriors Notes: Thompson, Curry, Horford, Rotation, Richard, More
Several weeks after Klay Thompson tore his ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals, the Warriors re-signed him to a five-year, maximum-salary contract in a show of loyalty to a player who had helped them win three championships up to that point. However, that deal became a source of contention between Thompson and management, according to Anthony Slater and Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
Thompson, who tore his Achilles a year later in a pickup game away from the team’s facility and ended up missing a second consecutive full season, later admitted he should have been more careful about his ACL rehab process. However, given what he believes he’d contributed to the team Thompson was upset to overhear team owner Joe Lacob griping about his drop-off in production and telling people that the veteran sharpshooter should be grateful Golden State gave him that contract, sources tell Slater and MacMahon.
“This was a guy who felt he left it all out there for Joe and the organization, and was then viewed as damaged goods,” one league source said to ESPN.
That was one major factor that contributed to the growing tension between Thompson and the Warriors later on in that five-year deal. While the team insists it offered Thompson a two-year, $48MM contract extension during the summer of 2023, he and his camp didn’t believe that proposal was as concrete as it was portrayed, and he eventually felt as if the team “pushed (him) out in a strategic manner” during his 2024 free agency, per ESPN’s report.
Citing league sources, Slater and MacMahon report that Thompson would like to be playing for a contender, though he says he remains hopeful that can happen with the Mavericks. Asked about the possibility of eventually reuniting with the Warriors before he retires, Thompson was noncommittal, but one league source who spoke to ESPN believes Thompson would consider it if Stephen Curry pushed for it. “There’s no one that carries more weight with Klay than Steph,” that source said.
“It would be unbelievable,” Curry said when asked about the idea. “If that time comes and that conversation is had, of course I’m calling him and saying, ‘We want you back.’ And hopefully that would be a welcome message to him. But as we stand right now, that does seem like a far distant reality. But so did him leaving.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Head coach Steve Kerr said earlier this week that the health issue affecting Al Horford (right sciatic nerve irritation) has healed. However, Horford told reporters today that he believes he’s still about a week away from returning to action as he progressing through his rehab process, per Nick Friedell of The Athletic (Twitter link).
- The Warriors’ up and down play this season has resembled the pre-Jimmy Butler version of last year’s team. Unlike in 2024/25 though, Kerr doesn’t believe the front office needs to make a roster move to jump-start the team. “It feels similar in that we’re inconsistent,” Kerr said on Wednesday, according to Friedell. “We’re around .500, but I know that we have the answer here. Last year I felt like we had to make a move. This year I don’t think that’s the case. I think we have what we need here, but we need to develop more consistency in our play and that starts with me, giving these guys more consistent roles.”
- Kerr added that there are “tricky” rotation decisions to make because he trusts so many of the players on the 18-man roster to play regular minutes. “I think we have 14, 15 guys who I feel very comfortable putting on the floor, but I also only feel comfortable playing 11 at the most each night, really 10,” Kerr said, per Friedell. “And so no matter how we slice it, I’m gonna come up here and you’re gonna ask me about three different guys and it’s fair because they can all play.”
- One player who has fallen out of the rotation as of late is rookie Will Richard, who has been a DNP-CD in the Warriors’ past two games despite making 12 starts earlier this fall. “It’s been tough not playing him because I’m a huge fan and a believer,” Kerr said during a radio appearance on 95.7 The Game (hat tip to NBC Sports Bay Area). “He offers us stability and decision-making, good shooting, so he’s just got to stay with it. Right now, frankly, he’s sitting because he’s a rookie and I’m honoring what the older guys have done over the years. I think that’s good for chemistry, I think this is kind of how it goes.”
- Asked whether the Warriors would consider the idea of trading Butler or Draymond Green, Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter audio link) didn’t rule out the possibility, but noted that Curry would have to be convinced it was the right move. “I would not say it’s impossible,” Poole said. “Right now it still seems improbable.” To this point, Butler or Green have only really come up in trade speculation involving Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Warriors Notes: Kerr, Butler, Green, Lacob, Lineup, Horford, Spencer
After the Warriors fell below .500 on Sunday as a result of a 136-131 loss in Portland, head coach Steve Kerr took the blame for the loss and the 13-14 club’s recent struggles, writes ESPN’s Anthony Slater.
“I’m not doing my job well this year,” Kerr told reporters.
Stephen Curry scored 48 points in the loss, his second-highest total of the season. However, Golden State’s offense has struggled badly when the two-time MVP isn’t on the floor. The team has scored 118.8 points per 100 possessions when Curry is in the game, compared to just 107.1 when he’s not. The latter mark would be equivalent to the worst offense in the NBA.
As Slater notes, Kerr singled out one sequence in Sunday’s game when Curry wasn’t on the floor and star swingman Jimmy Butler didn’t touch the ball for four consecutive possessions.
“That’s on me,” Kerr said. “But that’s also on our players to understand. I can’t call a play every time. Nor do I want to. We have to find a way in collaboration to make sure we are playing through Jimmy.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Nick Friedell of The Athletic suggests that the Warriors need more aggression from Butler, whose 11.4 shot attempts per game this season are well below the 14.5 per game he averaged from 2014-24. Draymond Green didn’t disagree with that sentiment, though he also suggested he needs to do more to get Butler involved in the offense. “I think I got to do a better job of knowing, paying attention to the flow of the game, when he hasn’t touched the ball.” Green said. “When he hasn’t touched the ball for multiple possessions, getting him a touch and making sure he’s in the flow. … And then, as I do a better job of that, I also need Jimmy to be more aggressive and demonstrative and go take the ball. Or come get the ball. And say exactly where he want the ball.”
- As Alex Simon of SFGate.com writes, a Warriors fan who wrote an email to Joe Lacob to express his frustrations with the team and with Golden State’s usage of Butler got a candid and near-instant response from the team owner. “You can’t be as frustrated as me,” Lacob wrote in his reply to the fan. “I am working on it. It’s complicated. Style of play. Coaches desires regarding players. League trends. Jimmy is not the problem.” Asked on Tuesday about the leaked email, Kerr indicated he wasn’t bothered by Lacob’s reference to “coaches’ desires regarding players,” according to Slater. “Not a big deal,” Kerr said. “… We’re all frustrated. Joe is frustrated. I’m frustrated. Steph and (Green), everybody’s frustrated. … Joe supports me 100 percent. I support him. We have a great connection. We’ve had so much continuity here. Our stable environment in our organization is one of our strengths.”
- Seeking more continuity, Kerr said on Tuesday that he intends to keep using his current starting lineup – Curry, Butler, Green, Moses Moody, and Quinten Post – for the foreseeable future, barring an injury, tweets Slater.
- The health issue that has sidelined Al Horford for eight of the past nine games (right sciatic nerve irritation) has healed, Kerr said on Tuesday. The veteran big man is still considered doubtful to play on Thursday vs. Phoenix, but he’s nearing a return (Twitter link via Slater).
- Two-way player Pat Spencer will miss Thursday’s game for personal reasons, as Marc Stein tweets. Spencer has been active for each of Golden State’s 27 games so far and is already more than halfway to his 50-game limit. Any game he misses will give the Warriors a little extra time later in the season to convert him to a standard contract in order to keep him active.
Warriors Notes: Curry, Kuminga, Backcourt, Green
Stephen Curry showed no effects from the quad injury that sidelined him for five games as he returned to the court Friday night, writes Anthony Slater of ESPN. Even though the Warriors lost to Minnesota, Curry gave the offense a much-needed lift with 39 points in 32 minutes while making 14 of his 28 shots from the field.
“Started to feel normal again,” he said. “So individually, it was a good first game back just to get my lungs back and feel like myself.”
Curry came out firing, taking six shots and scoring 10 points during his eight-minute stint in the first quarter. He also helped to erase a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter with 14 points, including a trio of three-pointers. He didn’t travel with the team on its three-game road trip, staying in San Francisco to get treatment on the injury and participate in a Wednesday night scrimmage.
“He looked great,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Just the movement, the flow. I asked him how he was feeling after the first eight-minute run in the first quarter, and he said, ‘I feel great.'”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Curry responded to questions this week about Jonathan Kuminga, who hasn’t played in the past two games after being pulled from the rotation, relays Nick Friedell of The Athletic. Curry expressed support for the young forward, stating that he’ll likely get another chance to contribute before long. “We still have high hopes that he’ll impact our team this year,” Curry said. “But it’s just an idea you can’t lose your spirit when things aren’t going your way, because you’re a game or two away from it coming right back to you. And if you’ve checked out, or if you’re still not engaged in the learning process, then you might miss your moment on the back end. So it is a back-and-forth, and it’s the responsibility of both sides. As a team, it’s our job to support him because we know he’s a great dude, a very talented player, (and) we still have belief that he can help us.”
- Curry’s return creates a crowded situation in the Golden State backcourt, observes Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle (subscription required). The team has nine guards on its roster, and the availability of De’Anthony Melton, who made his season debut last Thursday, along with the emergence of Pat Spencer will lead to some difficult decisions regarding playing time. “We have a lot of guys now and it’s a great problem to have but it’s not an easy problem to solve, because I also would say there’s not a ton of separation between our players,” Kerr said. “… You always like to have a set rotation, but we’ll just have to see how it plays out.”
- Draymond Green will rejoin the team Sunday in Portland, but it hasn’t been determined if he’s going to play, according to Ali Thanawalla of NBC Sports Bay Area. Green has missed the past three games for personal reasons, and Kerr told reporters that the right mid-foot sprain he aggravated last week has healed. “It’s just a question of whether (director of sports medicine and performance) Rick (Celebrini) feels comfortable putting him out there,” Kerr said. “So, he’ll meet us in Portland and we’ll assess him there.”
Injury Notes: Curry, Green, Johnson, Morant, Booker, Green, Gafford, Williams, Poole
Good news for the Warriors. Stephen Curry is no longer on the injury report, according to ESPN’s Anthony Slater (Twitter link). Curry hasn’t played since Nov. 26 due to a quad injury.
The future Hall of Famer will suit up against the Timberwolves on Friday but two Golden State frontcourt players won’t be available. Draymond Green will miss the game for personal reasons, while Al Horford continues to be sidelined by a nerve issue in his back.
Here’s more injury-related news:
- The Wizards list four prominent players — Bilal Coulibaly, Corey Kispert, Alex Sarr and Khris Middleton — as out for their game against Cleveland on Friday (Twitter link). However, one key player isn’t on the injury report. Lottery pick Tre Johnson, who has been sidelined since Nov. 21 due to a hip flexor, is expected to suit up.
- The Grizzlies list seven players as out for their against Utah on Friday. Star guard Ja Morant isn’t one of them. Morant is considered questionable to play. A right calf strain has sidelined him since Nov. 15.
- Suns star guard Devin Booker will return either Sunday against the Lakers or next Thursday against the Warriors, according to Arizona radio host John Gambadoro (Twitter link). Booker hasn’t played since Dec. 1 due to a groin injury. Jalen Green, who has only played two games this season due to a hamstring strain, is tracking toward a return just after Christmas, Gambadoro adds.
- The Mavericks list big man Daniel Gafford as doubtful to play against Brooklyn on Friday due to right ankle injury management, Grant Afseth of the Dallas Hoops Journal tweets.
- The Trail Blazers’ Robert Williams (illness) and Yang Hansen (facial contusion) won’t play against New Orleans tonight, the team’s PR department tweets. Both players were originally listed as questionable.
- Jordan Poole is available to play for the Pelicans tonight, the team’s PR department tweets. He has been out since Nov. 4 due to a left quad strain.
Warriors Notes: Defense, Curry, Melton, Kuminga, Spencer
The Warriors have the NBA’s top defense over the past two weeks and rank third in the league for the season, writes Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle (subscription required). Golden State has held its last three opponents under 100 points and has shown significant improvement in that area since Draymond Green blasted the defensive effort following a November 26 loss to Houston.
The team doesn’t have much size on defense, but Gordon notes that it’s able to compensate by wearing down opponents with ball pressure and frequently switching between man-to-man and zone. The addition of De’Anthony Melton, who made his season debut last week after recovering from an ACL tear, has given the Warriors another capable on-ball-defender.
“We’re taking away some of the easy stuff. Some of that is taking better care of the ball,” coach Steve Kerr said. “When you’re in control of the game, you just feel like your defense is set up. Overall, we’re doing a better job containing dribble penetration and just helping each other and playing with a lot of energy.”
The offense ranks just 22nd, which Kerr attributes to a lingering turnover problem, but scoring from unexpected sources has helped the Warriors survive some early-season injuries. Gordon notes that backup point guard Pat Spencer is averaging 16 points and 5.8 assists while shooting 59.1% from the field over the past four games while Stephen Curry is sidelined with a quad contusion and muscle strain.
“He’s a really good downhill pick-and-roll player, which is a powerful force,” Kerr said of Spencer. “You need that type of action, especially in the modern game with the floor spacing. And he’s a good passer.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Curry was able to participate in a full scrimmage on Wednesday, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter link). No decision has been made on his status for Friday’s game against Minnesota, but Kerr said it looks promising that the two-time MVP will be able to play.
- The team will continue to be cautious with Melton, who has logged 21 and 17 minutes in his two games since returning, Slater adds (Twitter link). Kerr plans to keep Melton in that range until his conditioning returns and probably won’t use him on both ends of back-to-backs.
- Kerr addressed the status of Jonathan Kuminga, who will be become eligible to be traded on January 15 (Twitter video link from Slater). Speculation that Kuminga will be shipped out increased after he received a DNP in Sunday’s game at Chicago. “I can imagine it’s not easy for him,” Kerr said. “We talked about the situation. My desire is for JK to be the best player he can be, regardless of where he ends up, whether it’s here or elsewhere.”
- Spencer, who was considered one of best lacrosse players in NCAA history, talked about why he chose to pursue a career in basketball in a video posted at NBC Sports Bay Area.
Warriors Notes: Horford, Green, Curry, Richard, A. Davis
Al Horford was excited about the opportunity to join the Warriors, but his first few weeks with the team haven’t worked out as planned. The veteran center has only been available for 13 of Golden State’s first 23 games and is averaging 5.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in 21.5 minutes per night. He admits to Nick Friedell of The Athletic that he’s disappointed with his performance so far.
“I’m not where I want to be,” Horford said. “I would say I haven’t been very good. I understand that there’s a lot of work ahead of me, there’s more that I need to do, and I need to be better, and I feel like I will. But right now, I’m not where I want to be.”
Injuries have played a part in Horford’s early-season frustrations, as he just returned Thursday after missing about two weeks with sciatica. Golden State isn’t using him in both ends of back-to-backs, just like Boston’s policy over the past two years, to avoid putting too much strain on his body during the long season. After playing 18 minutes on Thursday at Philadelphia, Horford said he believes he’s making progress physically.
“I felt pretty good tonight,” he said. “Obviously, not playing or anything, that’s always challenging, so trying to get my legs back under me, but it’s just nice to get back on the floor. Things didn’t go our way tonight, the game didn’t go our way, I’m still trying to find myself as well, but I was encouraged with some of the things tonight.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Horford will miss Saturday’s game at Cleveland as part of a lengthy injured list that also includes Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Seth Curry and De’Anthony Melton, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter link). He adds that there’s optimism about Green, who injured his right foot during Thursday’s game and left the arena in a walking boot. Slater states that Green was able to do some shooting on his own after this morning’s shootaround (Twitter link).
- Coach Steve Kerr said Stephen Curry is making progress in his recovery from a thigh contusion and “it’s realistic” that he could return Friday against Minnesota (Twitter link).
- At 22, Will Richard was viewed as old for a prospect heading into this year’s draft, but he believes he benefited from playing four seasons in college, writes Kenzo Fukuda of ClutchPoints. Richard has been a surprise contributor for Golden State after being selected with the 56th pick. “I feel like those four years at Florida helped me out with my experience,” he said. “I feel like it helped me adjust much quicker than if I were an 18-year-old freshman or something like that. So no knock to the guys that get drafted who are younger than me. … I know my journey is different from everyone else, so I’m happy how it went.”
- Rumors that the Warriors are among the teams pursuing Mavericks big man Anthony Davis are untrue, according to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, who tweets that Golden State hasn’t contacted Dallas about a potential deal and doesn’t plan to during the season.
Stephen Curry Expected To Miss Three More Games
Injured star Stephen Curry won’t travel with the Warriors as they embark on a three-game road trip that begins on Thursday in Philadelphia, head coach Steve Kerr told reporters on Tuesday night.
That means that in addition to missing Thursday’s game against the Sixers, Curry will be unavailable for a weekend back-to-back in Cleveland on Saturday and Chicago on Sunday. After that trip, Golden State will have four full days off before hosting the Timberwolves on December 12.
“It was a long shot for him to play in the back-to-back and we don’t play again until (next) Friday,” Kerr explained, per Ali Thanawalla of NBC Sports Bay Area. “So it just makes perfect sense for him to stay home with (director of sports medicine and performance) Rick (Celebrini), get the rehab done here, get his work in and hopefully be ready for Minnesota next Friday.”
Curry exited last Wednesday’s loss to Houston with an injury that the Warriors later diagnosed as a quad contusion and muscle strain. He was initially ruled out for Saturday’s game against New Orleans and Tuesday’s matchup with the defending champion Thunder.
The Warriors beat the Pelicans over the weekend and put up a valiant effort on Tuesday against an Oklahoma City team that has been dominating the league this season, but couldn’t pull off the second-half comeback without Curry and star forward Jimmy Butler, who exited the game due to left knee soreness, as Anthony Slater of ESPN writes.
It’s unclear whether Butler, who was initially listed as questionable to play vs. OKC due to a glute contusion, will be available on Thursday vs. Philadelphia, Slater adds.
“I don’t know anything more,” Kerr said after the game when asked about Butler’s injury. “I didn’t even know (he was out) until I was drawing up a play with a minute to go (before the second half) and somebody came in the huddle and said Jimmy is down.”
The 11-11 Warriors, who have an overall net rating of +0.7 so far this season, are at +6.3 when Butler is on the court, +3.6 when Curry is playing, and +10.6 when they’re on the floor together.