The Warriors will not have a major contributor over the next week or at least, as newcomer James Wiseman will be reevaluated after that period after diagnosing a sprained wrist in Saturday night’s victory over the Detroit Pistons.
Steph Curry spoke to reporters virtually on Monday and discussed how the Warriors will cope with Wiseman’s absence in the meantime.
“It is a concern whenever you lose someone for any length of time, especially a guy who is in rotation, but we will find out and injuries are obviously a part of every season, no matter when they come, you just need to be able to adjust “said Curry. “I don’t know what the answer is with the rotation, but we have been working on some things with our small ball formations and (Eric Paschall) EP on five, (Damion Lee) D-Lee on four, Juan (Toscano-Anderson) probably will play a little, then, get to work. “
Warriors coach Steve Kerr will probably have to make some adjustments because, as The Athletic’s Anthony Slater noted in his question, the squad is reduced to just one real, healthy center at Kevon Looney.
Both Paschall and Draymond Green are experienced in playing the five, and will definitely do so in bouts in the next games until Wiseman is reevaluated.
As you can see in the video below, Wiseman injured his wrist in the third quarter of Saturday night’s game, falling after Green’s wrong pass.
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Wiseman was replaced by Looney as a starter last week, and achieved his best performance of the season in a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, scoring 25 points and catching six rebounds in just over 24 minutes.
The starting lineup for the Warriors’ last four games – Curry, Kelly Oubre, Andrew Wiggins, Green and Looney – have played together for 64 minutes this season (via Basketball-Reference) and are beating opponents by 33.2 points out of 100 possessions.
Looney will be the primary recipient of most of Wiseman’s minutes in his absence, but, as Curry noted, the entire bench will need to stand up until the big man can return to the court.
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