AILING WARRIORS TAKE ANOTHER HIT
Green leaves loss to Spurs, joining Curry, Durant and Thompson as injured teammates
SAN ANTONIO >> Draymond Green slowly walked to the interview room. He limped and grimaced slightly.
Then, the Warriors forward summed up the feelings for any man that has taken a shot below the belt.
“It’s constant, annoying pain,” Green said. “It hurt, but it’s more annoying than anything.
“It definitely hurt. It’s no fun.”
And just like that, the Warriors’ number of All-Stars dwindled down to zero. Therefore, it seemed inevitable the Warriors would lose, 89-75, to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday, a matchup that featured an injury-ravaged team against one fighting for its postseason life.
The Warriors have always put higher priority on health than results. So more concern likely centers on Green’s status than the Warriors (53-18) falling further behind the Houston Rockets (56-14) for the Western Conference’s top seed. Save the intrigue surrounding the Spurs (41-30) holding a fifth seed with only a onegame lead over the eighth and final playoff spot for San Antonio fans.
Most of the Warriors’ attention centered on Green, with Warriors guard Quinn Cook calling “the glue to our team.”
Green missed the entire second half because of what the team called a pelvic contusion. Warriors coach Steve Kerr added that Green had a bruise in the “pubic area.”
“It’ll be fine. I think it’s something that is at the peak right now,” Green said. “But it’s calmed down a little bit since it happened. It ain’t that serious.”
Green left the game with 7:13 left in the second quarter after Spurs forward Danny Green inadvertently kneed him in the private area. Draymond Green soon went to the locker room and did not return to the bench. At halftime, the Warriors determined to sit Green for the duration of the game. The Warriors said that Green’s x-rays came back negative.
Afterwards, Green asked reporters why no one asked if Danny Green kneed him intentionally, arguing the line of questioning would have differed the other way around.
“I still don’t think its anything serious. It just never really settled down,” Draymond Green said. “Usually when you hit low, it settles down through the course of a couple of minutes. It didn’t start settling down. It’s all good.”
Green believes “it’ll be fine” and does not expect to miss Friday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks at Oracle Arena. The Warriors will also are off today before resuming practice on Wednesday and Thursday.
“It’s tough. You hope it’s nothing serious and he’s okay,” Warriors forward Kevon Looney said. “Draymond is a tough guy
and will play through anything. But our focus is to be healthy for the playoffs. So we don’t want anybody to force anything and let it get worse.”
For now, though, Green’s injury left the Warriors without any All-Star players amid injuries to Stephen Curry (right ankle), Klay Thompson (right thumb) and Kevin Durant (ribs). To a lesser extent, Warriors reserve guard Omri Casspi (right ankle) also remains sidelined.
“We don’t expect our guys to be out too long. It’ll be good for us,” Green said. “I think we’re in a place right now where we’re almost locked in to the 2 seed barring Houston doesn’t have a collapse. I don’t see happening. We’re probably locked into the 2 seed.”
The Warriors plan to reevaluate Curry on Tuesday and could return as early as Friday. The Warriors plan to reevaluate Thompson on Thursday, though he is expected to be sidelined at least for another week. The Warriors plan to reevaluate Durant in another week.
With most of their stars sidelined, the Warriors posted a season-low in points, shot 40.5 percent from the field and went 15.8
from 3-point range.
The Warriors did not lead for the entire first half. And though the Warriors took a 63-61 lead entering the fourth quarter, the Warriors closed out the game missing four of their last five shots while the Spurs closed the game out on a 17-8 run in the final 6:51.
Meanwhile, Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge scored 19 of his team-leading 33 points in the fourth quarter, including eight in the final 4:10.
“The Spurs turned it up a notch. They’re fighting for their playoff lives,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “They played like it.”
Meanwhile, Warriors guard Quinn Cook observed “we ran out of gas.”
The Spurs still sorely miss All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard, who has missed 62 games with a quadriceps injury. They managed just fine with Aldridge (33 points), Patty Mills (12) and Danny Green (11).
Cook (20 points), Looney (12 points, eight rebounds), Andre Iguodala (10 points) and Nick Young (10 points) logged double digits for the Warriors, but that fell way short of what four All-Stars could provide. The Warriors’ previous season-low: a 81-point effort against Denver on Dec. 23, another game that Curry was sidelined.
“I would rather Steph, Klay, Kevin and Draymond back all 100 percent,” Cook said. “All of us get to play more. But I’ll trade it for all of those guys back, to be honest with you.”
When Green sat in pain in the locker room in the second half, he saw his teammates have the right mindset even if they lacked the star power they usually enjoy.
“It was good to see guys battle like that,” Green said. “That’s what it’s all about right now.”