Payton will be available against Mavericks
The Golden State Warriors finally have at least one reinforcement on defense on the way. Guard Gary Payton II will be available for Saturday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center after missing the previous 12 games with a strained right calf.
Combined with the indefinite suspension of forward Draymond Green, Golden State has been without its two best stoppers for the last two-plus weeks.
Payton will be on a minutes restriction, head coach Steve Kerr told reporters at Friday’s practice. Kerr must figure out how to carve out time on an increasingly competitive depth chart, a difficult task even for a player like Payton who can guard all five positions and has the team’s best defensive rating.
“Our defense has not been great lately,” Kerr said. “We’ve got a lot of issues in terms of just staying in our shell. Too many holes in the shell on the weakside, back cuts, things like that. So, Gary’s a great defender, it’ll be good to have him back and we’ll see how we fit him in.”
When Payton last played in Nov. 28 loss in Sacramento, neither of the Warriors’ standout rookies, guard Brandin Podziemski and forward Trayce Jackson-Davis, logged a single minute.
Since then, Podziemski is averaging 11.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 29.2 minutes per game, starting all eight contests since Green was suspended.
Jackson-Davis also secured a spot in the rotation as a solid two-way contributor. His 7.3 rebounds per game lead Golden State, and his 17.6 minutes per game are a fraction more than starter Kevon Looney has been playing.
Guard Moses Moody has had his minutes squeezed over the past two games, despite boasting the team’s second-best net rating since the suspension of Green, who reportedly could return as soon as Jan. 5.
Curry’s struggles: Stephen Curry will enter Saturday’s game having come off two of his worst shooting performances of the season.
The team discussed at Friday’s practice how to get Curry more involved after he went a combined 10-for-36 from the field, including 5-for-21 from 3point range, and failed to score 20 points in losses to Denver and Miami.
“Maybe it’s throwing the ball into the post and getting into a split. Maybe it’s him running to the weak side coming off a pin down. We aren’t getting those plays lately,” Kerr said. “And those are the plays that we have to get and a lot of them happen organically. So it’s really the way to get to them is spacing and ball movement.”
Briefly: Looney is listed on the injury report as questionable for Saturday’s game with an illness.