The Golden State Warriors will be without Klay Thompson on the second leg of a back-to-back. Fortunately, the 34-year-old isn’t sitting out against the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night due to aches and pains from devastating previous injuries nor as a precautionary measure to keep his legs, though.
Thompson will be sidelined in Indianapolis due to illness, according to Golden State’s most recent injury report.
The future Hall-of-Famer was a late addition to Golden State’s injury report, his name popping up there about 90 minutes before scheduled tipoff at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. He wasn’t listed on the Warriors’ injury report an hour earlier, suggesting that Thompson’s symptoms developed late in the day or he was initially hoping to play through his illness.
His absence comes at a frustrating time for both Thompson and the Dubs, who are coming off one of their most impressive victories of the season on Wednesday over the Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers. Thompson played well in his team’s blowout victory, scoring 18 points on 6-of-12 overall and 4-of-5 from deep, an especially encouraging performance in wake of his deflated response to being benched late in Golden State’s win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday.
“When he plays like he did tonight, just under control, moving the ball when that’s the right thing to do, shooting when he’s open, he’s a fantastic player. I loved Klay’s game tonight,” Steve Kerr said after the game. “Very much under control and just fit in with the group. It was perfect.”
Rookie Brandin Podziemski, who finished Monday’s game in Brooklyn, will also start in Thompson’s place against the Pacers. In an admittedly small sample size of 64 minutes, the lineup featuring Podziemski next to the now-entrenched starting quartet of Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga and Draymond Green boasts a dominant +36.1 net rating, per pbpstats.com. Expect Moses Moody and Lester Quinones to get additional minutes with Thompson sidelined, too.
Golden State and Indiana tipoff at 4:00 p.m. (PT).
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