Warriors Starter Ruled Out with Melton for Heat Game

The Golden State Warriors (24-19) will be without Draymond Green (ankle) for Monday's game against the Miami Heat (22-20).

The Warriors will also be without De'Anthony Melton (ACL injury management) on the front end of a back-to-back. Gui Santos (ankle) will miss his second straight game.

The Heat will be without Tyler Herro (ribs), but otherwise their main rotation players are expected to play.

Horford Could Play Season High in Minutes

Without Green and Santos, the Warriors will need Quinten Post and Al Horford to play big minutes.

Don't be surprised if Horford plays a season high in minutes.

Back in October, Horford played 29 minutes in an overtime win against the Denver Nuggets.

Post has played under 20 minutes in seven straight games.

So if the Warriors had one of Post and Horford on the floor for every minute of the game and Post played 18 minutes, Horford would play 30.

Horford will not play Tuesday as he's not expected to play a single back-to-back this season. So more so than other Warriors rotation players, he can empty the energy clip.

He's also the Warriors' best traditional center right now, and they'll need his size and acumen against Bam Adebayo.

Curry Due for Big Game

Stephen Curry has not topped 31 points in his last 10 games.

Perhaps he has a huge scoring game Monday.

The Heat are 24th in defensive rating over the last two weeks, per Cleaning the Glass.

Their best bet to slow Curry down is Davion Mitchell, but Curry is averaging 30.9 points per game in 19 games against Mitchell in his career. Mitchell (shoulder) is listed as probable.

Are the Warriors Interested in Bringing Wiggins Back?

There's no reported Andrew Wiggins interest from the Warriors, but it's easy to speculate why they'd be interested.

The money works if Golden State offers Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield for him. The Heat would surely ask for some draft capital—probably one lower-value first-round pick—but that shouldn't stop the Warriors.

My question is do the Heat really want Kuminga when they are battling for playoff positioning?

Wiggins is having a decent season, averaging 15.8 points per game and shooting 46.6 percent from the field.

The Heat have been slightly better with Wiggins off the floor, per Cleaning the Glass, as he has a minus-2.2 net rating. But that number has been trending up for a while.

My guess is he's staying put, but if the Heat make him available, the Warriors should call.