The Golden State Warriors can’t catch a break on the injury front. Steph Curry (right quad contusion) wasn’t the only key player to suffer an injury during Wednesday’s 104-100 loss to the Houston Rockets — Gary Payton II sprained his left ankle in the first half and did not return to the court.
According to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dalton Johnson, Payton shook his head while hobbling down the tunnel, knowing well that he had suffered a severe injury.
“An angry Gary Payton II just hobbled down the tunnel and to the Warriors’ locker room shaking his head,” Dalton reported shortly after Payton’s injury.
Warriors Injury Woes
The injuries to Curry and Payton spell disaster for a Warriors team that has lost three of its last four games and continues to sink further in the Western Conference standings. Furthermore, Jonathan Kuminga (knee), De’Anthony Melton (knee), Al Horford (sciatica) are also sidelined with various injuries.
While Kuminga and Melton have been assigned to scrimmage with the G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors, there’s no definitive timeline for Horford’s return.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is already fretting at the thought of enduring another stretch of games without Curry, who missed four games earlier in the season.
“When I heard it was a quad, I was actually relieved,” Kerr said of the Steph Curry injury, via ESPN’s Anthony Slater. “Better than an ankle or a knee.”
“If Steph has to miss [time]?” Kerr said. “It obviously changes everything — our rotations, how we’re playing, who we are playing through. We’ll see.”
Warriors Blasted by Veteran Stars
The loss to a Kevin Durant-less Rockets on Wednesday left the likes of Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler III irate. Both veteran stars ripped the team’s effort on defense and did not hold back on their lack of effort.
“Our defense is s–––,” Green fumed after the loss, via ESPN’s Anthony Slater.
Green, a nine-time All-Defensive selection, criticized the “demeanor” of his teammates, calling them “soft” in their approach to defense.
“It’s not necessarily the numbers,” Green said. “How do you feel when you out there? It’s letdown after letdown. It’s bigger than the numbers. Defense is about demeanor. If there’s letdown, it kills your demeanor, it kills your bravado. Then you’re just a soft team.”
Meanwhile, Butler accused the Warriors of being front-runners who celebrate while making shots, but go radio silent when things go south.
“A lot of our hustle is dictated upon our offense,” he said. “When we’re making shots, we’re celebrating, we’re cheering. When we’re not, we put our head down and we mope and we don’t box out, and we don’t get back. We foul. We do all the bad things.”
The Warriors (10-10) will try to get back to winning ways against the lowly New Orleans Pelicans (3-16) on Saturday night.
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