Golden State Warriors guard Kelly Oubre Jr. is key to the team’s playoff hopes. That’s why the latest development on his wrist injury is causing concern.
For the Golden State Warriors to feel confident in their chances of a playoff push, they needed all the chips to fall their way. The universe had other ideas.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, Oubre has a torn ligament in his wrist a fracture on his palm.
Oubre has played through his wrist problems this season, and there’s still a chance he could try to continue to do so, according to Charania. He’ll receiver further evaluation on that front.
A torn ligament and a fracture on the palm sounds like a pretty serious issue to continue playing through, though.
The fall that aggravated his already injured wrist didn’t look pleasant at all.
In his first season with the Warriors, Oubre has averaged 15.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.0 steals per game. He’s been a valuable third scoring option behind Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins.
Kelly Oubre Jr. is key to the Warriors’ play-in hopes
Golden State can’t really afford to lose Oubre’s presence as it tries to hold onto a spot in the NBA’s play-in tournament. After Saturday’s win, they were in ninth place in the West, just ahead of the San Antonio Spurs.
Getting into the tournament is one thing; they’ll have to keep chugging along in their final eight games of the regular season, and although three of those will be against the New Orleans Pelicans, who sit just outside the play-in spots, they’re 3.5 games ahead of dropping out of a play-in spot.
Progressing through the play-in tournament without Oubre’s help is another thing altogether.
If Warriors fans want to cling to hope that doesn’t involve Oubre playing through his injury, Golden State did win four of the five games he missed in mid-April. They lost their most recent game against Minnesota without him before beating the Houston Rockets Saturday night.