Porter joins starting 5 for spacing
With the Warriors down three men through at least Saturday’s game for health-protocol reasons, Otto Porter Jr. was on the floor to start the game for the first time this season Thursday.
Head coach Steve Kerr said he wanted to get Porter in the lineup for his shooting, and — not incidentally — to spread the floor a bit for Stephen Curry, “just to provide Steph a little spacing a little help.”
Also among Golden State’s starters against Memphis was guard Gary Payton II, making his second start of the season. Kerr said he has been looking for ways to increase Payton’s minutes. That makes sense, with Damion Lee and Jordan Poole both out because of the health and safety protocols. Finding his niche within the Warriors’ offense, Payton was shooting 65.1% from the field this season entering Thursday.
As well-regarded as Payton is defensively, he drew a tough defensive assignment Thursday: Memphis guard Ja Morant, who entered the game averaging 23.7 points and 6.9 assists per game. “We’ll see how the first five minutes go and adjust from there,” Kerr said.
Perhaps the biggest news of the day for the Warriors was that they lost no more players to the health and safety protocols. Assistant coach
Mike Brown was not on the bench for protocol reasons, however, but the team welcomed back another assistant, Kenny Atkinson, who had missed more than a month after suffering a leg injury during a workout.
Forward Andrew Wiggins is also out for health and safety reasons. Andre Iguodala missed practice with knee swelling.
Remember Bol: The Warriors paid tribute to one of the most extraordinary players in fran
chise history, 7-foot-7 Manute Bol, on Thursday as part of observing their 75th anniversary season. Bol set the franchise record for most blocks in a game (13), and the Warriors say he’s first on their franchise list with an average of 3.7 blocks per game during his career with the team (1988-89 and ’89-90, plus a five-game stint in 1994-95).
Kerr played in the league at the same time as Bol, who died in 2010 at age 47. Kerr reflected, “He was a great guy. Very funny. A huge personality, just loved the game, loved to be part of the game. He talked a lot of trash, but in a fun way. I never played with him but the guys who I’m friends with and played with him said he was just an absolute blast. He was a character, one of a kind, that’s for sure.”
And, of course, the 3-pointhappy Warriors love the fact that former head coach Don Nelson let Bol shoot from way outside on occasion.
“The fact that Nellie had him out there shooting 3’s shows that he was ahead of his time,” Kerr said with a grin.
Briefly: The Warriors officially signed guard Quinndary Weatherspoon
to a 10-day contract via the league’s harship exception, the team announced. Weatherspoon, who played in 31 games with the Spurs the past two seasons, was averaging 16.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists for the Warriors’ Gleague Santa Cruz team . ... James Wiseman (knee) might be cleared for contact during practice in the next week, Kerr said.