Draymond scrimmages, should be ready to return tonight at home against Lakers.
Kerr applauds team’s 10-game winning streak, but admits it hasn’t been pretty with injuries
OAKLAND » The Warriors might be getting some of their toughness back very soon.
Draymond Green, who has missed the team’s last four games because of right shoulder soreness, participated in Thursday’s practice and could be ready to play Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I kind of expect him to play ( Friday), but we’ll have to wait and see,” coach Steve Kerr said Thursday.
Green and Zaza Pachulia, who has missed the past five games with left shoulder soreness, participated in three- on-three scrimmages. Kerr said both players will be listed as questionable.
“They both came out fine,” Kerr said.
Kerr said that Green wanted to play in Wednesday’s 97-84 win over Memphis, but Green was held out to make sure he was
“He probably was healthy enough to play, butwe hadn’t seen any live action fromhim since the Detroit game, so we weren’t going to play him without some scrimmaging.” – Warriors head coach Steve Kerr on forward Draymond Green
ready. "He probably was healthy enough to play, but we hadn't seen any live action from him since the Detroit game, so we weren't going to play him without some scrimmaging," Kerr said. Shaun Livingston (right knee soreness) did not prac-tice Thursday and is doubt-ful against the Lakers. An-dre Iguodala (flu-like symp-toms) is questionable. Stephen Curry, who remains sidelined by a sprained right ankle, re-ceived treatment Thursday and took shots after prac-tice. He will be re-evalu-ated Thesday. On Wednesday against Memphis, the Warriors were without five players: Curly, Green, Pachulia, Liv-ingston and Iguodala. Kerr said that even though the Warriors have been winning —they are on a 10-game winning streak — it hasn't been pretty. "We're just not as effi-cient," Kerr said. "We're not setting as many screens. Everybody is a little out of position. We don't have the same precision. The game happens so fast, everything really needs to be precise. And we're really not precise right now" That being said, Kerr said that the Warriors have been handling this bit of adversity with a lot of ma-turity. "You can tell we're a lit-tle disjointed, but I'm re-ally proud of those guys," he said. Kerr, however, went on to joke that it's not totally out of the question for the short-handed Warriors to sign consultant Steve Nash, a two-time MVP, to a G-League contract. "We could have him for 45 days if we sign him to a G-League contract," Kerr said. "I'm guessing he could only give us five before his body cut out, but those five would be awesome." ■ The Warriors have on a season-high 10 games in a row despite being so short-handed. The main reason? Their defense. After Curry was injured against New Orleans on Dec. 4, Kerr called a team meeting. He told them their focus needs to shift and sharpen. "Last year, KD went out for 18 games and we were No. 1 in the league in de-fense, and it was because we had a sense of fear that, oh man, we've got to play otherwise we're in some trouble," Kerr said. "That meeting was about the ex-act same thing — let's be the best defensive team in the league from now until Steph gets back." In six games without Curry, the Warriors have only allowed opponents to score 100 or more points twice. Kerr, however, said that he shouldn't exactly be credited with coming up with this magical solution. "I'm sure a lot of coaches are saying, 'hey, play great defense,' " Kerr said. "It's not like we figured this out after years of study. It's pretty basic stuff, but our team is capable of it." ■ Klay Thompson hopes a certain someone from the Eastern Conference will be on his All-Star team. "I think it would be cool to play with Kevin Love be-cause I grew up with that guy since I was 8 years old," Thompson said during the NBA global media confer-ence Thursday. Thompson said that he and Love, who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, haven't played together since they were on the same Little League team in Lake Oswego, Oregon. "To play with him in the All-Star team would be pretty special," Thompson said. Thompson and Love have definitely had a lot of experience playing against one another, most recently when the Warriors beat the Cavaliers in the 2017 NBA Finals. "It's always fun compet-ing against them," Thomp-son said. The Warriors host the Cavaliers on Christmas.
■ Warriors president Rick Welts is on the list of nominees for the Hall of Fame class of 2018 as a "contributor" to the game. Welts has had extensive stints in the NBA league office (1982-1999), the Phoenix Suns' president and chief executive officer (2002-2011) and the War-riors' president (2011-pres-ent). Welts first worked with the former Seattle Super-sonics, from an initial stint as a ball boy and the team's director of public relations when Seattle won its first NBA championship in 1979. In an article in The New York Times published on May of 2011, Welts became the first highest ranking executive in men's profes-sional team sports to pub-licly acknowledge he is gay.