Wiggins’ return delayed as injury still posing problems
Ahead of the Golden State Warriors’ home game against the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 5, head coach Steve Kerr told reporters that Andrew Wiggins’ right adductor strain wasn’t a major concern and that he didn’t expect the forward to miss additional games beyond that point.
Fast forward to Christmas Day and Wiggins’ streak of missed games has extended to 10, including the entirety of the team’s recent six-game trip.
When Wiggins was cleared to return to practice on Dec. 15 in Philadelphia, there was optimism that he would be available to play in Sunday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, a rematch of last season’s Western Conference semifinals. With Stephen Curry out for at least two more weeks, the Warriors were in need of additional star power.
Kerr told reporters in Toronto that Wiggins probably wouldn’t play until Golden State returned to San Francisco for its eightgame homestand. However, during his pregame news conference on Sunday, Kerr revealed that Wiggins’ injury has “lingered” longer than the team’s medical staff expected. A timeline for Wiggins’ return remains unclear.
“With groin injuries you have to be careful,” Kerr said. Director of Sports Medicine and Performance Rick Celebrini “told us if we brought him back too soon and he re-tweaked it, it could put him out a month. And so we’re just trying to be cautious and give him an extra day or couple of days, whatever it’s going to take to get him back. So hopefully he’ll play soon, but I can’t tell you exactly when that is.”
Kerr said Wiggins will have to be cleared for live-action drills in practice before returning to the court. He’s averaging 19.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 22 games while shooting 51.1% from the field and career-best 45% from 3-point range.
The Warriors have a 13-9 record with Wiggins in the lineup this season and entered Sunday 3-9 without him. He revealed in Toronto that his injury was suffered during his last appearance for Golden State, a 120-101 win over Houston on Dec. 3 in which he scored a season-high 36 points with eight 3-pointers. Wiseman’s progress: Kerr said third-year center James Wiseman is getting better and that the time he has spent in the G League in recent weeks has been helpful to his development.
However, while Wiseman’s career-best 30-point performance against Brooklyn on Wednesday indicates offensive improvement, his defense remains under the microscope.
“We’re most interested in his defense,” Kerr said. “He’s always been able to score. He has a really good touch around the basket. He’s obviously very long and athletic. So even early in the season when he was playing in our rotation he was scoring plenty. It was mainly his defense we were concerned about. And so what I like is the last couple of games of the road trip, he played much better defense and had a better feel for positioning and rotations and that sort of thing. As he gets better with that and more consistent, then he’ll have a chance to play more.”
Wiseman entered Sunday having averaged 10 points and 3.5 rebounds with an average plus/ minus of minus-12.3 in his first four games since returning to the Warriors from the G League on Dec. 16.
Kerr told reporters Sunday that JaMychal Green, who has missed three straight games, remains in the league’s health and safety protocol. Until he’s healthy, Wiseman will continue to receive opportunities.