Gary Payton II, Jonathan Kuminga near return to Warriors rotation
LOS ANGELES The Warriors best perimeter defender is almost ready to return to the lineup Gary Payton II who has missed the past three games with a partial tear in his left thumb participated in the unit s shootaround at UCLA on Thursday morning He was ruled out of the crew s competition against the Lakers but the crew reported he will be listed as day-to-day moving forward We re going to get Gary back soon Warriors coach Steve Kerr disclosed pregame Payton has suited up times this season and has averaged points and rebounds per event in minutes per tournament Meanwhile Jonathan Kuminga warmed up on Thursday night but remained a meeting time decision with a right pelvic contusion he suffered in San Antonio last week He s going to warm up and we ll see Kerr declared Kuminga was listed as available on the official injury description after Kerr s media availability The -foot- forward is averaging and even points per contest this season The Warriors - are the fifth seed now a half-game in front of sixth-seeded Minnesota - and the No seed Los Angeles Clippers - in the West standings The Lakers - entered the event as the No seed Podziemski Reddick sees similarities The Warriors and Lakers each rebuilt their rosters at midseason trades for Jimmy Butler and Luka Doncic respectively rendering their pre-trade results three Lakers victories over Golden State meaningless The Warriors are - since adding Butler while Los Angeles is - following its blockbuster business for Doncic The Lakers don t play at quite the breakneck pace they did when center Anthony Davis was running to the rim but Los Angeles is still effective when it hits the open court They play a little bit different with Luka Brandin Podziemski mentioned after shootaround They play slower but they re still No in transition PPP points per possession and a lot of rim attempts in transition So we figure if we can keep a man on a man and keep them out of transition we ll be fine Lakers coach JJ Redick also pushed back on the notion that the Warriors have been a fully different squad with Jimmy Butler They re doing a lot of the same stuff and we ve got to be great with our off-ball discipline and Curry awareness and it s hell to try and guard him Redick explained Although Butler has given Golden State a second ballhandler who can draw fouls free throw attempts per battle with the Warriors and find open shooters assists per tournament Redick highlighted his defensive impact as the Lakers are concerned about Kerr agreed Draymond and Jimmy are incredibly high IQ players and the two of them working together it s beautiful to watch Kerr noted They read off each other We might be in a scheme that we don t get to for whatever reason and it doesn t phase them They just instantly react to what s in front of them Thursday begins a run of three consecutive games against teams seeded higher than Golden State After ending its six-game road trip in Los Angeles the Warriors will take a quick flight back to the Bay Area to play a home event against third-seeded Denver on Friday After one day off Golden State will play host to No seed Houston It does feel like a playoff challenge Kerr announced With this play-in situation there s eight teams that would ve been in in the clear under the old format and it would have just been about seeding We re all desperate to avoid that play-in and so it s created a race
