Game Thread: Payton back, Iguodala ruled out
Game Thread: Payton back, Iguodala ruled out
Kerr on Payton: "I anticipate him getting out there tonight"
The Golden State Warriors will get a chance to wash away the painful memories of a fourth quarter meltdown today when they open up Chase Center to welcome the Boston Celtics to Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
On the injury front, Andre Iguodala has been officially ruled out for today’s game, which may open up some opportunities for the Warriors’ rookies — but we’ll see what coach Steve Kerr decides. Iguodala has been out of the rotation for long enough that his absence today probably doesn’t necessarily mean that any sort of drastic shakeups will be needed to cover the minutes.
What could be a significant event, however, would be the return of Gary Payton II to the active list. Technically available in game one, reports up through yesterday indicated that he wasn’t shooting with his injured left arm. But ahead of the game, Kerr said that he expects Payton to play.
“He’s made some improvement the past couple of days and I anticipate getting him out there tonight.”
Payton has been out since fracturing the elbow on his shooting arm against the Memphis Grizzlies. If you were going to apply a scale to the two injury announcements, the leap of Payton being out, to expected to play (note that he’s still listed as questionable on the injury report) lands much higher than the absence of Iguodala. Iguodala labored through limited minutes, but would later say on his podcast that if had been the regular season, he wouldn’t have been available to play.
Payton sounds like he’s rounding into shape, but still far from completely healed. In this clip from yesterday, he says “I’ll figure it out”
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors vs. Boston Celtics
WHEN: Sunday, June 5th, 2022 // 5pm
WATCH: ABC
Celtics lead series 1-0
To the front office: I repent of my repeated requests to re-aquire Marquese Chriss. GP2 is doing just fine, and gives us more vertical spacing. If you'd like more roster advice from songwriters, I am available, but can't be trusted. Thank you.
Hell yes! Great effort. If they play D with that energy and focus it will be extremely difficult for the Celtics to score.
Everyone has already said it, but GP2 is a game changer. He might be playing 30 minutes a game the rest of the series if he can take it. He makes whoever he’s guarding extremely uncomfortable and speeds them up. He had the defensive version of Steph assists. They were throwing terrible passes out of his on ball D and the next guy would get the steal.
Also, I love a comfy win with Klay shooting like that. I don’t know if the stats back me up but I always feel he gets better as the series goes on. Just finds comfort regardless of the level of D.