SACRAMENTO, Calif. — One night after an exciting comeback win against the Utah Jazz, the Warriors are resting the bulk of their stars for Sunday’s road game against the Kings.
As expected, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Otto Porter Jr. were listed as out on the team’s injury report Saturday afternoon for injury management. Draymond Green will play his first back-to-back set since returning from a disc injury in his back.
Green has looked more like himself in the Warriors’ last two games after criticizing his own play last week.
Golden State has been extra cautious with its veterans returning from injury this season.
Thompson has yet to play in both games of a back-to-back this season since coming back in January from his ACL and Achilles tears. And Porter, who has battled various injuries throughout his nine-year NBA career, has played in only one complete back-to-back this season, dating back to Jan. 13 and 14.
Iguodala returned last week from a back injury that sidelined him for 21 games, and coach Steve Kerr on Saturday said the plan was to sit the 38-year-old for the backend of the Warriors’ second-to-last back-to-back.
“He came out fine from the other night,” Kerr said before the Warriors’ 111-107 win over the Jazz. “We’re just going to continue to be very cautious with the idea that we’d like to have him throughout the playoff run. And so we’ve got to we’ve got to really think big picture and not overdoing it with him.”
In three games since his return, Iguodala, the second oldest player in the NBA, has averaged three points, three rebounds and 2.3 assists in 15.5 minutes.
The Warriors enter Sunday as the No. 3 seed of the Western Conference with a one-game advantage on the fourth-place Dallas Mavericks and a comfortable three-game lead on the Jazz and Denver Nuggets, who are tied for fifth.
Golden State has four games remaining, including Sunday’s tilt — all of which the team will play without Stephen Curry, who was ruled out last week for the remainder of the regular season as he nurses a sprained ligament in his left foot. He’ll be re-evaluated before the playoffs, which begin April 16.
The Warriors will also be without James Wiseman, who hasn’t played in an NBA game since last April. The second overall pick of the 2020 draft was recently shut down for the season after swelling persisted in his surgically repaired knee.
Source: www.mercurynews.com