Injury Report: Warriors Welcome Back Iguodala, Porter Jr., Increase minutes for Klay Thompson
Watching the Golden State Warriors over the last few weeks, it’s been easy to forget that the team with the second-best record in the NBA has been short-handed — without Draymond Green, Nemanja Bjelica, Otto Porter Jr. and Andre Iguodala.
Monday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, however, the Warriors will gain reinforcements, as Porter Jr. and Iguodala have been cleared to play, according to head coach Steve Kerr.
“It’ll be great to get Andre back,” Kerr said. “Everything he does is so important.”
In 25 games this season for the Warriors, Iguodala has averaged just over four points per game. His real value, however, lies in his ability to facilitate the team’s offense off the bench as he boasts nearly four assists per game.
As for Porter Jr., he'll be inserted into the starting lineup, according to Kerr as he comes back from a back injury that’s kept him sidelined for the last three games.
In addition to Iguodala and Porter Jr.’s return, Golden State also announced that starting guard Klay Thompson will have his minutes restriction upgraded to 30 minutes per game.
Thompson is coming off of a 23-point performance against the Sacramento Kings where he hit a total of seven triples to lead Golden State in scoring. According to Kerr, the decision to bump Thompson’s minutes came from the team’s Director of Sports Medicine, Rick Celebrini.
“Just leaving the decisions in the hands of the experts,” Kerr said. “Conditioning has never been an issue… We’ll see as the minutes continue to be increased if that becomes an issue. But so far, so good.”
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