SAN FRANCISCO – Add four more exceedingly dismaying sights to this torturous Warriors season.
The first occurred three minutes after tipoff Saturday night, when Draymond Green’s increasingly visible limp became too much for him to bear, and he headed into the locker room with calf tightness that ended his night.
The second sight came in the third quarter when Stephen Curry’s right thumb, which has been tender for three weeks, took a bump that left him trying to shake off the pain. He remained in the game, but any issue with Curry’s shooting hand is too concerning to dismiss.
The third came in the final minutes, when Curry landed hard after a collision under the basket, came up hobbling on his left ankle and immediately left the game.
Steph Curry exited late in tonight’s game after a scary collision with Jordan Poole
— Warriors on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcswarriors.bsky.social) January 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM
The fourth, and least significant in the middle of the season, is that the Warriors needed a herculean effort from Andrew Wiggins to post a 122-114 victory over the Washington Wizards – the worst team in the NBA – that provided only tepid relief for the sellout crowd (18,064) at Chase Center.
“Draymond’s going to get an MRI tomorrow, and Steph just told me he doesn’t think it’s serious,” coach Steve Kerr said. “But they’ll both be day-to-day for now.”
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Pending test results, this game is, on its face, the definition of a pyrrhic victory. Even if the medical updates are positive, any optimism will be muted. Curry has been pretty good at self-diagnosing ankle issues, but Green’s limp was so pronounced it clearly was painful and appeared to be serious.
Draymond Green won’t return to tonight’s game due to left calf tightness
— Warriors on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcswarriors.bsky.social) January 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
For the fortunes of the Warriors lie largely in the effectiveness and availability of Curry and Green, decorated veterans and co-leaders of the team. This was the first game of a stretch in which eight of nine will be at Chase. The schedule over the next two-plus weeks represents an opportunity to climb up the Western Conference standings.
Yet here the Warriors are, with their offensive engine nursing ankle and thumb aches and their defensive ace, who was returning from a three-game absence, not making it past the first timeout and almost certain to miss at least few more games.
When Green left the floor, he was replaced by Gui Santos, who played only eight minutes without scoring. Moses Moody filled in admirably at power forward, scoring 13 points in 29 minutes and finishing plus-12 – enough to warrant more time.
“If he’s at the 4, there’s generally other shooters around him,” Kerr said of Moody, now in his fourth season. “There’s room for him. He’s always his best for us in this role, where he’s basically standing on the perimeter, ready to shoot, using his strength and length and making hustle plays like he did tonight.
“If Draymond’s out for a little bit, it’s a good chance for Moses to get a lot of minutes at that 4 spot.”
On a night when so much went wrong, Wiggins did everything necessary to ensure there was a successful ending, scoring a team-high 31 points, adding 11 rebounds, four assists and two blocks over 35 minutes.
“Andrew was great,” Kerr said. “He’s been playing at a really high level all season. The way things have evolved the past couple weeks, we’ve just really leaned into his scoring. We’re trying to get him on the floor for all the non-Steph minutes and running a lot of offense through him.
“He’s doing a lot of good things for us, scoring in multiple ways. And tonight, with the way he rebounded, he just played a total game. He was fantastic.”
Wiggins and Curry each scored nine points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors held off the Wizards, who cut the deficit to five with 1:39 left before fading down the stretch.
The Warriors managed to avoid the sting of another defeat to a struggling team, but it came at a cost. They can only hope it’s not high enough prevent a chance to build momentum.
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