Game Thread: no Paschall against Pacers tonight

Details are slim, amount of time missed still to be determined.

The Golden State Warriors’ super sub, Eric Paschall will not be available for tonight’s matchup against the Indiana Pacers. Paschall, who has been having a breakout season off the bench in his second year with Golden State, will be sorely missed. Above all, the hope is that this move is entirely a precaution associated with contact tracing or exposure, rather than Coronavirus.

Anthony Slater @anthonyVslater

Sources: Warriors forward Eric Paschall is entering the league’s health and safety protocols. He will miss tonight’s game against the Pacers. Length of absence still to be determined.

Paschall is the teams 3rd-leading scorer, and has been central to the success of Golden State’s bench unit. Without him, the Warriors are going to scramble to find a reliable bench scorer, while also dealing with the broader impact of Paschall’s absence for an unknown period of time.

Paschall has scored at least 10 points in every game since being moved to a reserve role after the first two games of this season.

A silver lining here is that the Warriors do have options for their frontcourt rotation. Even without the injured Marquese Chriss, there are players like Juan Toscano-Anderson, and Kevon Looney that deserve some additional minutes… and of course there’s always Draymond Green - who remains the team’s best center, even as the team is hesitant to deploy him there too often because of wear and tear (and the desire to develop other players for that backup center position).

Some of those minutes vacated by the lack of Paschall should also get directed to rookie center, James Wiseman. Though a work in progress, Wiseman has been fairly solid for most of his rookie campaign, and this could be just the opportunity needed to encourage coach Steve Kerr to give Wiseman a bit more playing time.

Anthony Slater @anthonyVslater

James Wiseman didn't close either of the last two games. Asked him about that.

“I’m just working hard every day. Just working my minutes.”

Well, time to do a little bit more of that please!

The big picture

This is the third Warriors player (as far as we know) that has been directly impacted by the Coronavirus that’s currently rampaging through the country. Green and Wiseman both missed all of training camp as well as the preseason, and Green even quipped after return that his wind was “somewhere in hell.” In other words, this doesn’t need to be a full blown case of Coronavirus to cause a concern.

This is the gritty reality of the NBA this season. After the league and players made the tough decision to try a season amidst the pandemic, it was expected that cases would occur in the players and NBA personnel.

But it’s getting bad enough to start wondering where the exact line is to press pause on the season. Earlier today, ESPN reported that the NBA has “multiple players who previously tested positive for the coronavirus have recently tested positive a second time, sources told ESPN.”

Also via ESPN, here is every game postponed this season due to the NBA's COVID-19 health and safety protocols. No makeup dates have been set - note that this list is already out of date!

• Dec. 23: Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Houston Rockets

• Jan. 10: Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics

• Jan. 11: New Orleans Pelicans vs. Dallas Mavericks

• Jan. 12: Boston Celtics vs. Chicago Bulls

• Jan. 13: Orlando Magic vs. Boston Celtics

Here are some other late breaking games impacted:

The league revised it’s guidance for players and teams earlier today, but it seems a little silly to preclude handshakes when everyone is sharing the same basketball and breathing on each other. Amid thinning rosters and growing concern across the league, the NBA has no plans to pause the season, a league spokesman told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

We will update this story as additional details become available.