Warriors squeak out win, but not without pain vs. Wizards

Warriors squeak out win, but not without pain vs. Wizards originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Add four more utterly terrifying sights to this torturous Warriors season.

The first came three minutes after tipoff Saturday night, when Draymond Green’s increasingly visible limp became too much for him to bear and he entered the locker room with calf strain that ended his night.

The second sighting came in the third quarter, when Stephen Curry’s right thumb, which has been sore for three weeks, took a bump that caused him to try to shake off the pain. He remained in the game, but any issues with Curry’s shooting hand are too concerning to dismiss.

The third came in the final minutes when Curry landed hard after a collision under the basket, came up limping on his left ankle and immediately left the game.

The fourth, and least significant in the middle of the season, is that the Warriors needed a big effort from Andrew Wiggins to post a 122-114 victory over the Washington Wizards—the worst team in the NBA—that provided only lukewarm relief for the sellout crowd (18,064) at the Chase Center.

“Draymond is going to have an MRI tomorrow and Steph just told me he doesn’t think it’s serious,” coach Steve Kerr said. “But they will both be daily for now.”

Pending test results, this game is on its face the definition of a pyrrhic victory. Even if the medical updates are positiveany optimism will be dampened. Curry has been pretty good at self-diagnosing ankle issues, but Green’s limp was so pronounced that it was clearly painful and appeared to be serious.

For the Warriors’ fortunes lie largely in the effectiveness and availability of Curry and Green, decorated veterans and co-leaders of the team. This was the first game in a stretch where eight of nine will be at the Chase. The schedule over the next two-plus weeks represents an opportunity to climb the Western Conference standings.

Yet here the Warriors are, with their offensive motor and ankle and thumb soreness and their defensive ace returning from a three-game absence, not making it past the first timeout and almost certain to miss at least a couple of games more.

When Green left the floor, he was replaced by Gui Santos, who played just 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 at his best for us in this role, where he’s pretty much standing on the rim, ready to shoot, using his strength and length and making hustle plays like he did tonight.

“If Draymond is out for a little while, it’s a good chance for Moses to get a lot of minutes at the 4 spot.”

On a night when so much went wrong, Wiggins did whatever was necessary to ensure a successful finish, 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 progressed the last few weeks, we’ve just really leaned on his scoring. We’re trying to get him on the floor for all the non-Steph minutes and run a lot of offense through him.

“He does a lot of good things for us and scores in multiple ways. And tonight, with the way he rebounded, he just played a total game. He was great.”

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 falling.

The Warriors managed to avoid the sting of another defeat to a struggling team, but at a cost. They can only hope it’s not high enough to prevent a chance to build momentum.

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