Wiggins out, Waters starting in second Warriors-Pelicans game originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Warriors flew Andrew Wiggins on wednesday night will misses second straight game against the New Orleans Pelicans due to a lower back strain.
Wiggins went through a warm-up on the Warriors’ practice court before pitching but was not deemed good to go. After the Warriors’ win Tuesday night against the Pelicans, coach Steve Kerr called Wiggins questionable to play the second night of their back-to-back and that he had a chance to play. He was listed as questionable on the injury report all Wednesday, but the Warriors will be shorthanded again.
They are also without Steph Curry (left foot/ankle) and De’Anthony Melton (back). Both Curry and Melton will be reevaluated Friday before the Warriors’ five-game road trip.
In the game Wiggins was injured, a 112-104 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, he had his best offensive performance of the young season. Wiggins scored 29 points in the loss, and 11 came in the fourth quarter. He was 11 of 15 from the field and went 5 of 8 on 3-point attempts.
Through his first three games of the season, Wiggins is averaging 19.7 points per game on 55 percent shooting and 57.9 percent (11 of 19) from three. He only scored 29 or more points twice last season. Wiggins also grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds in the second game of the season.
Without Curry, Wiggins and Melton, Kerr started Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, Moses Moody, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis in Tuesday night’s win over the Pelicans. But to start the second half, Kerr replaced Hield with Lindy Waters IIIwho proved to be the perfect move.
Hield scored 25 of his 28 points in the second half by going a perfect 6 of 6 on 3-pointers, and Waters was plus-21 with 12 points.
The same group that started the second half on Tuesday night will be the same starters on Wednesday against the Pelicans, putting Waters in the backcourt with Podziemski and sliding Moody to small forward.
“He’s a very patient player,” Kerr said Wednesday of Waters in his pregame press conference. “He’s such a threat as a shooter that he causes a reaction from the defense, but he’s very smart. He just moves that ball quickly and that creates an advantage and the dominoes start to fall and then the ball movement starts to happen.
“Last night was our highest passing total of the season by far and Lindy was a big part of that because of the simplicity of his game and then at the other end he’s always in the fight, always in the mix. He’s a good rebounder, he’s got good size. He’s quite the player.”
Waters has 108 career NBA games and has started only once. That came during his first NBA season as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 9, 2022, scoring eight points in a 30-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
