Veteran swingman Andre Iguodala continues to deal with back soreness and is out for the Warriors Thursday night at Portland, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. The 38-year-old, who missed 13 of Golden State’s last 14 games leading into the All-Star break, has been productive when healthy, but has played just 26 games to this point.
Draymond Green and James Wiseman are also out Thursday, Slater reports in the same tweet. Wiseman did travel with the team, however, and appears to be inching closer to a return, as he was a full participant in Golden State’s scrimmage Wednesday night, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link). A recent report indicated Wiseman might make his season debut on March 1, but coach Steve Kerr says there are no firm next steps for when the young big man will return.
Green has been dealing with a back/disc injury and said during All-Star Weekend that he hopes to return within three or four weeks.
Here are some more injury-related updates from around the league:
- Clippers star Paul George, who’s currently sidelined with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, was scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday but it has been pushed back to Friday, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times (via Twitter).
- Celtics guard Marcus Smart suffered an ankle injury February 15 at Philadelphia, but he says it’s gotten better over the All-Star break. “Feeling pretty good. Honestly, the night of the injury was pretty harsh for me. Couldn’t put any pressure on it, but over the break, was able to get some sun and did some cool things to work on it. Swelling’s gone down,” Smart said (Twitter link via Jared Weiss of The Athletic).
- The Wizards traded for Kristaps Porzingis on February 10, but it sounds like they’ll continue to have to wait for his debut. He wasn’t a full participant in practice Wednesday or Thursday and coach Wes Unseld Jr. says Porzingis will be ramped up over a period of time, going from one-on-one to three-on-three then five-on-five. He has no definitive timetable for a return and is considered day-to-day going forward (All Twitter links from Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington).
stop dunking andre.
Its looking like this is Iggy’s last year. GSW need him ready for the playoffs.
Why is Iguodala even playing at this point? So what if he’s productive, he’s only going to end up playing in like 30 games this year.