- Andrew Wiggins is thriving in his new role as a small-ball power forward for the Warriors, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “I mean, it’s not easy, obviously,” Wiggins said, “because 99 percent of the time, I’m smaller. But I feel like I’m just as strong and athletic as anyone else. I love fighting with guys. I love the physicality down there. I feel like it just gets you going. You gotta wake up for this. You can’t just ease into it. If you ease into it, those guys are gonna push you under the rim and bury you.”
MAY 5: Payton’s MRI yesterday revealed muscle damage on top of the fracture and ligament damage, the team announced in a tweet. He’ll be reevaluated in two weeks.
MAY 4: Warriors guard Gary Payton II will miss three-to-five weeks due to his fractured left elbow, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
Payton’s MRI revealed “slight ligament damage” in addition to the fractured elbow, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic, who adds that the defensive stalwart hasn’t ruled out a possible return later in the postseason as long as Golden State keeps advancing.
Payton suffered the injury less than three minutes into Game 2 of the team’s second-round matchup with the Grizzlies after taking a hard foul from Dillon Brooks in transition — Brooks was given a Flagrant 2 for the play and ejected. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr later called the play dirty, and the league is expected to further evaluate Brooks’ foul to see if it warrants a suspension.
As our JD Shaw notes (via Twitter), Payton received his first career playoff starts against Memphis in an attempt to slow down Ja Morant, who went off for 47 points and eight assists with Payton sidelined. His absence will certainly be felt by Golden State, as he’s the team’s best defensive guard by a significant margin.
After bouncing between the G League and the NBA in his first five seasons and never finding a consistent home or role, Payton had a terrific season for the Warriors in 2021/22, appearing in 71 games (16 starts) while averaging 7.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals on .616/.358/.603 shooting. Though he averaged only 17.6 minutes per night, his impact was clear when he had opportunities, showcasing jaw-dropping athleticism, a knack for the ball, hustle, and strong defense and rebounding.
In his first six playoff games prior to the injury, the 29-year-old averaged 7.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1 steal on .727/.750/.667 shooting in 18 minutes. Since Golden State has great shooters like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole, opposing teams sometimes ignored Payton offensively.
However, Kerr was creative in calling plays for Payton, who often served as a pseudo-big man on offense — catching lobs, lurking in the dunker’s spot along the baseline, and opportunistically cutting to the basket. Defensively, he was frequently tasked with covering the opponent’s best perimeter player.
Payton will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Grizzlies swingman Dillon Brooks has been suspended for Game 3 of the team’s second-round series against the Warriors, the NBA announced (via Twitter).
Brooks was ejected less than three minutes into Game 2 after committing a Flagrant 2 foul on Gary Payton II, which resulted in Payton sustaining a fractured elbow. The league said Brooks’ “unnecessary and excessive contact” and Payton’s injury factored into its decision.
As Anthony Slater of The Athletic observes (Twitter link), Brooks’ one-game suspension mirrors a similar incident during the regular season, when Grayson Allen‘s hard foul resulted in Alex Caruso suffering a fractured wrist.
Brooks will lose $84,138 for the suspension, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
Brooks was limited to 32 games (27.7 MPG) during the regular season, with averages of 18.4 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.8 APG and 1.1 SPG on .432/.309/.849 shooting. He had an outstanding showing in the playoffs last season, averaging 25.8 PPG and 4.2 RPG on .515/.400/.808 shooting, but he’s struggled with his shot through eight games this season, averaging 13.3 PPG and 2.1 RPG on a .348/.341/.667 slash line.
The 26-year-old is a hard-nosed defender who did a solid job tracking Stephen Curry in Game 1’s one-point loss, but he shot just 3-of-13 from the floor and picked up five fouls in 30 minutes. Memphis will miss his leadership and versatility.
The Grizzlies/Warriors matchup is currently tied at one game apiece, with Game 3 set for Saturday night in San Francisco. With Brooks out, Memphis will rely on its depth to fill his minutes. Similar to Game 2, Ziaire Williams, De’Anthony Melton and Tyus Jones are likely to receive additional playing time.
Warriors veteran Andre Iguodala will miss at least one more week due to his cervical disc (neck) injury, the team announced (via Twitter).
Iguodala, who hasn’t played since Game 4 of Golden State’s first-round matchup against Denver on April 24, “is making good progress in his recovery and will be reevaluated again in one week.”
After Gary Payton II suffered a fractured left elbow in the Warriors’ Game 2 loss to the Grizzlies on Tuesday, head coach Steve Kerr said the club was hopeful Iguodala would be available for Game 3 in an effort to slow down Ja Morant, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
Morant, exploded for 47 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in Game 2 — including his team’s final 15 points. Obviously, having Iguodala available to defend Morant is off the table for now, as the veteran is still hampered by his neck injury.
Once a crucial part of Golden State’s lineup and an NBA Finals MVP in 2015, Iguodala battled injuries this season and was limited to 31 regular season appearances. However, the 38-year-old had been a part of Kerr’s playoff rotation when healthy, logging at least 12 minutes in three of the team’s first four playoff games. He missed Game 2 vs. the Nuggets due to a bilateral neck spasm.
As Slater notes (Twitter link), Iguodala will be sidelined for at least Games 3, 4 and 5 against Memphis.
Suns assistant Kevin Young, Bucks assistants Darvin Ham and Charles Lee, Celtics assistant Will Hardy, Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic, Heat assistants Chris Quinn and Malik Allen, and Warriors assistants Mike Brown and Kenny Atkinson are among the assistants around the NBA who are viewed as potential head coaching candidates by league insiders, according to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz (Insider-only link).
A number of the names on Arnovitz’s list have been linked to one or more of the NBA’s three current head coaching openings. Ham and Brown, for instance, all believed to be under consideration by all three of the Hornets, Lakers, and Kings.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Harvard senior guard Noah Kirkwood, who declared for the 2022 NBA draft as an early entrant, has decided to remain in the draft and go pro rather than using his final year of college eligibility, according to agent Ronnie Zeidel (Twitter link via Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports).
- Rockets forward/center Usman Garuba said in an interview with Spanish outlet AS.com that he’s committed to representing Spain at this year’s EuroBasket competition, as Eurohoops relays.
- In an intriguing bit of international basketball news, an RMC Sport report indicates that Sixers center Joel Embiid is exploring the possibility of obtaining French citizenship and representing France in future international events. Embiid was born in Cameroon, but has family from France and has never suited up for the Cameroonian national team.
Despite having his vision affected after he was poked in the eye in the third quarter, star guard Ja Morant had one of the most impressive performances of his career on Tuesday, scoring 47 points – including the Grizzlies‘ final 15 points – to lead the team to a Game 2 victory over Golden State. Morant told reporters after the game that he was having trouble seeing out of his left eye in the fourth quarter, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
“I can see on the middle. I can’t see on the outside. I got punched trying to get the rebound,” Morant said. “I got another good eye over here (on the right side) — 20-20 vision right here. Thank God for my right eye.”
As Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer details, the Warriors had no answer for Morant after Gary Payton II left Tuesday’s game due to a fractured elbow, and will have to reassess their game plan for defending the electric 22-year-old prior to Game 3 on Saturday.
When asked after Tuesday’s game about the Warriors’ plan for Morant, head coach Steve Kerr said the club hopes Andre Iguodala (neck) will be available for Game 3, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. However, Iguodala is 38 years old and has battled injuries for much of the season, so Golden State can’t realistically expect him to shut down one of the league’s top scorers.
Here’s more on the Grizzlies/Warriors series:
- Kerr was upset by the flagrant foul that injured Payton and earned Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks an ejection, as Kendra Andrews of ESPN writes. “I don’t know if it was intentional, but it was dirty,” Kerr said. “There is a code. This code that players follow where you never put a guy’s season [or] career in jeopardy by taking somebody out in midair and clubbing him across the head, ultimately fracturing Gary’s elbow … He broke the code. Dillon Brooks broke the code.”
- The NBA is expected to further evaluate Brooks’ foul to see if it warrants a suspension, Andrews writes. Since there will be three off days before Game 3 tips off on Saturday, an announcement from the league shouldn’t necessarily be expected today.
- Draymond Green, who briefly returned to the locker room after taking a hit to the right eye, had no regrets about flipping his middle fingers to the crowd on his way off the court, Andrews notes. “You gonna boo someone who was elbowed in the eye and face is running with blood, you should get flipped off,” Green said. “I’ll take the fine. I’ll do an appearance and make up the money. It felt really good to flip them off. … If they are going to be that nasty, I will be nasty too. I’m assuming the cheers were because they know I’ll be fined. Great — I make $25 million a year. I should be just fine.” Green got back in the game after receiving stitches for a right eye laceration, but Kerr said the former Defensive Player of the Year “was struggling” with the injury.
11:45 PM: Payton has fractured his left elbow, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (via Twitter). Slater notes that tomorrow’s MRI will indicate the severity of the injury.
9:33 PM: The Warriors‘ second-round playoff matchup against the Grizzlies remains chippy as Game 2 takes place tonight.
After taking a hard foul from Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks on a breakaway drive (Twitter video link, as captured by Bleacher Report), Warriors starting shooting guard Gary Payton II exited the contest and headed back to Golden State’s locker room. Brooks was instantly assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game.
The Warriors announced (via Twitter) that they have ruled out Payton for the rest of Game 2, following X-rays on his left elbow (Twitter link). Payton logged just 2:52 of game action.
Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets that the imaging on the elbow proved “inconclusive,” but that Payton would undergo an MRI tomorrow that would hopefully have more answers for the Warriors.
Payton’s Golden State teammate Draymond Green also left the game after a Grizzlies player fouled him. Memphis center Xavier Tillman elbowed Green in the face, as Trisha Easto of the Memphis Commercial Appeal recaps. Green flashed a rude hand gesture in response to the FedEx Forum crowd, which could incur an NBA fine. The Warriors revealed (Twitter link) that Green suffered a right eye laceration and received stitches. He returned to the contest after being sewn up.
Draymond Green picked up a Flagrant Foul 2 in the second-round opener against the Grizzlies but he’s not going to alter his style, Kendra Andrews of ESPN writes.
“I am never going to change the way I play basketball,” the Warriors forward said. “It’s gotten me this far. Gotten me three championships, four All-Stars, Defensive Player of the Year. I’m not going to change now.”
We have more out of the Pacific Division:
- Jordan Poole‘s dramatic improvement is chronicled by Andrews in a separate story. The Warriors’ guard put in extra work during the early days of the pandemic and it has paid off. Poole’s 31-point, nine-assist game against Memphis on Sunday was the latest example of his breakthrough year. “I’ve always made people eat their words,” Poole said. “I never went to the media and said anything about anybody else. I just shut up, take it all in and let my game do the talking. It feels a lot better. Oh, my god, it feels so good.”
- Prior to the conference semifinals matchup against Dallas on Monday night, Suns All-Star Devin Booker said the hamstring injury that cost three games in the opening round is no longer an issue, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic tweets. “Feels great. Ready to go,” Booker said.
- Among the three finalists for the coaching job, Mike Brown is the Kings’ best choice, James Ham of The Kings Beat opines. Brown checks all of the boxes, has the best résumé, and deserves another head coaching opportunity, Ham writes. Steve Clifford would be a safe choice but hasn’t enjoyed previous success like Brown, while Ham believes Mark Jackson would be a major risk.
A day before Game 2 of his team’s second-round series against the Warriors, Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said that center Steven Adams remains in the league’s health and safety protocols, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN tweets. Adams, who was placed in the protocols on Thursday, is listed as out for Tuesday’s game, the team’s PR department tweets. Starting guard Desmond Bane is listed as questionable due to lower back soreness. Bane was limited to nine points in 32 minutes in Game 1 on Sunday.
We have more from the Western Conference:
- Rudy Gobert and his agent are still awaiting their annual exit meeting with the Jazz, Tony Jones of The Athletic tweets. That meeting will likely determine how the two sides proceed going forward into the offseason, Jones adds. Utah is expected to shake things up after another early playoff exit. Gobert has four years remaining on his five-year, $205MM contract.
- Reggie Bullock‘s defensive importance was so profound against the Jazz that the Mavericks played him 254 of a possible 288 minutes in the series. Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News writes an in-depth piece on Bullock and how personal tragedies have shaped his career. Bullock is in the first year of a three-year deal, though the final season isn’t fully guaranteed.
- The NBA upheld Draymond Green‘s Flagrant Foul 2 ruling in Game 1 of the Warriors’ series against the Grizzlies. The player who was fouled, Brandon Clarke, wasn’t surprised that Green committed such an infraction (ESPN video link). “He’s been known for flagrant fouls in his career. I’ve watched him on TV my whole life, it feels like, so I wasn’t really shocked,” Clarke said.
The NBA won’t reduce or rescind the Flagrant 2 foul assessed to Warriors forward/center Draymond Green in Game 1 of the team’s series vs. Memphis on Sunday, according to Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Green was called for the Flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game late in the second quarter after grabbing and pulling the jersey of Grizzlies big man Brandon Clarke as Clarke attempted a layup (video link).
As we relayed earlier today, Green expressed optimism during an episode of his podcast on Sunday night that the league would review and adjust the foul, perhaps reducing it to a Flagrant 1. However, it appears that won’t happen.
Players are given two flagrant foul points for a Flagrant 2 foul and one for a Flagrant 1 during the postseason, with four total flagrant foul points resulting in an automatic one-game suspension. Green is now halfway to that automatic suspension and would be forced to miss a game if he’s called for another Flagrant 2 or two Flagrant 1 fouls during the remainder of the playoffs.