McCaw injury mars victory
Scary scene late in 3rd quarter
SACRAMENTO — Late in the third quarter of the Warriors’ 112-96 win Saturday night over the Kings, after he was inadvertently bumped by Vince Carter while coming down on a layup, Patrick McCaw was placed on a stretcher and wheeled off the court.
It was a scary scene for a team that has struggled to stay healthy of late. Unlike the injuries that have sidelined Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green recently, McCaw’s appears serious. An ambulance took him to UC Davis Medical Center for further evaluation.
Per ESPN, McCaw experienced numbness when he fell to the floor, but has since regained sensation in his leg. A chest X-ray came back clear, and he is awaiting results of a CT scan. McCaw is also expected to undergo an MRI.
“You feel for him and just hope and pray he’s alright,” Durant said. “Our prayers are with him, and we just can’t wait to see him out there again.”
The image of McCaw, arms folded over his chest and neck in a brace as he was wheeled off the court, overshadowed all of Golden State’s on-court progress Saturday. Locked into the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed, the Warriors’ top priority is getting healthy for the postseason. McCaw, who had been
playing some of his best basketball of the year in recent days, sustained easily the team’s most concerning injury this season.
Two nights after scoring 12 points in a loss to Milwaukee, McCaw had seven points and two rebounds in 16 minutes Saturday. With Golden State up 86-69 in the waning seconds of the third quarter, McCaw caught a pass from Jordan Bell, made a layup and was inadvertently undercut by Carter. McCaw landed hard on his back, unleashing a yell as he flailed on the floor.
A team trainer rushed to McCaw’s side as a hush fell over the crowd. Over the next 10 minutes, as the trainer tended to a motionless McCaw, coaches and players from both teams filtered toward him. After McCaw was placed on a stretcher and wheeled off the floor, the Kings and Warriors huddled under Golden State’s basket for a brief prayer.
Carter was assessed a Flagrant-1 foul. With McCaw injured, Durant made the ensuing free throw.
In those moments, with little known about McCaw’s status, Warriors players were shell-shocked. It hardly mattered that they had made notable strides in Thompson’s first game back from missing eight games with a fractured right thumb.
“It’s a pretty somber mood right now,” Thompson said. “It was just a freak play. Prayers up to Pat and his family.”
For the first time Saturday since Curry sprained the MCL in his left knee last week, Golden State had its three other All-Stars. The Warriors began reverting back to the blueprint they rode to a 9-2 record with Curry out 11 games in December.
They throttled down the tempo, ratcheted up the defensive intensity and rolled their offense through Durant, who finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Thompson chipped in 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting. Golden State had 28 assists to only 10 assists.
But after the game, the Warriors weren’t in the mood to talk basketball. Kerr didn’t answer any questions about the win in his postgame media session. Though the team has provided no official update on how McCaw is feeling, Durant mentioned that he heard McCaw is “getting better.”
Now, with the rough end of a back-to-back set looming Sunday night against Phoenix at Oracle Arena, Golden State faces an important question: How serious is McCaw’s injury? After Saturday’s game, some players were planning to visit him at the hospital.
“All we can do is just hope we get a positive response from the hospital,” Kerr said. “We’ll see.”
“It’s a pretty somber mood right now. It was just a freak play. Prayers up to Pat (McCaw) and his family.” The Warriors’ Klay Thompson