Will the Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins play in the last two games of the season?
With the Warriors opting to focus on rebuilding his conditioning, the star will have to wait a little longer before he can take to the court once again.
Though Tuesday night’s win against the Thunder was important, most fans will remember the game more for who wasn’t on the court. Sat on the bench was Andrew Wiggins, making his first appearance with the team since he left it to attend a personal matter in February. It was a sight that Warriors fans truly enjoyed and they let him know it.
Steve Kerr explains why Andrew Wiggins won’t play last 2 games
According to comments from Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr, Andrew Wiggins will not play in either of the Golden State Warriors’ two remaining regular-season games. Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, Kerr spoke of the need to bring Wiggins back up to game speed before putting him back out on the court.
“We gotta make sure we build him up, get his strength and his conditioning in a good place before we put him out there, so he’s not going to play in these last two games of the regular season,” Kerr said. “But he’ll continue to work and he’ll ramp it up pretty quickly.” To be clear, Wiggins has not been with the team since February 13th, when he left to deal with a family matter. Wiggins himself disclosed earlier this week that his condition was “not terrible,” before admitting that he understands an NBA game would require it to be even better. To that end, Kerr also disclosed that Wiggins had participated in a scrimmage with young players and coaches on Wednesday.
“It’s full court, 5-on-5, and he looked good,” Kerr said. “And one thing with Andrew is he’s just got that God-given athleticism and he’s one of those guys who just doesn’t seem to get tired very easily. A lot like Andre Iguodala. He hasn’t played in whatever it is, two months, and he’s out there running around and looking pretty good. But he still has to really stack together a number of days like this before he’s really, I think, ready to go out and play in an NBA game. We can’t put him in a bad spot health-wise.”
Where are the Golden State Warriors right now?
With their next two games being on the road against the Kings and Blazers respectively, the Warriors currently sit on a record of 42-38. That’s good enough for sixth in the Western Conference, where they are just one game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers who sit in seventh. If they manage to get win both of their last two games, they will secure the No. 6 seed and automatic qualification for the postseason. Needless to say, that would be ideal for Wiggins transition back to the court. If on the other hand they lose just one, then there is definitely the risk of heading into the play-in tournament, something that the Warriors have been burned by before.
“It would help him and it would help us,” Kerr said. “Because if you avoid the play-in, I think you end up with about six days off. And that’s a time, thinking back to last year, where we had some really good practices. We were able to install some things that we needed to install; game-planning wise, knowing our opponent; add a few wrinkles here and there and get a couple good scrimmages in. And if Wigs can take part in that, which he would be able to do, then it’s a really, really good kind of ramp-up for him, not only physically but mentally, too, getting back into the mix. ...We know how dangerous the play-in is,” Kerr said, “and we’d love to avoid it if we can.”