Andrew Wiggins will sit out for the Warriors’ game against the Los Angeles Clippers with right finger soreness. It will be Wiggins’ first missed game of the season.
Wiggins, 28, has mostly struggled this year, but had a double-double with 29 points and 10 rebounds in one of his best games of the year against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, a game in which Golden State squandered a 24-point lead and lost, 124-123.
The injury leaves Golden State down three key players for Thursday and, perhaps, beyond.
Chris Paul will sit out with a lower left leg nerve contusion suffered in Sacramento and Gary Payton II is expected to miss significant time with a calf injury. Payton came up limping to the locker room in the third quarter of Tuesday’s game. A report Wednesday from The Athletic’s Shams Charania suggested that Payton had torn his calf, but the Warriors have not confirmed that injury as of Thursday afternoon.
Wiggins played all of Tuesday’s game and popped up on the injury report in the hours before tipoff against the Clippers.
In 18 games, Wiggins is averaging 12.8 points shooting 26.7% from 3. The Warriors have been outscored by opponents by 87 total points with Wiggins on the floor, and have outscored opponents by a total of 89 points with him off the floor – both are team highs.