Warriors Starter Ruled Out Late for Grizzlies Game

About 90 minutes before tipoff of Warriors-Grizzlies, Steve Kerr announced Draymond Green would miss Wednesday's game after his back injury flared up.

"He's already beaten up from last night and his back acted up today, so we'll keep him out and get him ready for the next (game)," Kerr told reporters.

Without Green, the Warriors will have just nine players active.

Golden State will also be without De'Anthony Melton (rest on second leg of a back-to-back), Stephen Curry (knee), Seth Curry (sciatica) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness). Two-way players LJ Cryer and Nate Williams are listed as out as well.

Leons Could Get Real Rotation Minutes

Malevy Leons has appeared in five games with Golden State, and the only time he played more than four minutes was during the Warriors' blowout loss to the Timberwolves on Jan. 26. In that game, he played 9:22.

He might set a career high in minutes on Wednesday.

The Warriors are very thin at the forward positions. They have four active guards in Pat Spencer, Brandin Podziemski, Will Richard and Gary Payton II, and they have two active centers in Al Horford and Quinten Post.

But they have just three active forwards in Moses Moody, Gui Santos and Leons.

In 31 G League games this season, Leons is averaging 14.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks. The 6'9" 26-year-old is a jack-of-all-trades kind of player.

He's probably not ready for serious rotation minutes, but for one game against a depleted Grizzlies team, he can provide the Warriors a lift.

I'd be more worried about Leons getting exploited if Memphis had several tall, physical players in its rotation. But the Grizzlies will not have a single player active taller than 6'9" with Zach Edey (ankle) and Santi Aldama (knee) out.

Warriors Need Bounce-Back Performances from Spencer, Richard

In his last four games, Pat Spencer is 9-of-28 from the field with 21 points. Overall, he's a minus-24 in that span.

On Tuesday, Richard did not attempt a single shot in 17:28 and finished minus-19.

Suffice to say, the Warriors will need a lot more from both to beat the Grizzlies.

They are both capable of it. Richard had 17 points six days ago against the Celtics, and Spencer had a four-game stretch in which he scored 64 points in early February.

The Warriors don't have anywhere else to turn. Both will get plenty of playing time to bounce back Wednesday.