The injury-plagued Golden State Warriors again lacked the firepower to finish off an opponent, with Victor Oladipo scoring 24 points in the Indiana Pacers’ 92-81 victory over the defending champions on Tuesday night.
Nick Young scored 12 points as Golden State, playing without their four All-Stars for a second straight game, lost back-to-back contests for only the ninth time during coach Steve Kerr’s four seasons.
Draymond Green had been set to return, but was still feeling ill, while NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant is likely to be back from a rib injury today against Milwaukee.
Stephen Curry could be out through the first round of the playoffs with a left knee injury, while Splash Brother Klay Thompson is recovering from a fractured right thumb.
Rookie Jordan Bell sprained his right ankle in the third, had it re-taped and returned.
Thaddeus Young and Bojan Bogdanovic scored 17 points apiece for playoff-bound Indiana, who won their third straight and fourth in five.
Pacers reserve forward Trevor Booker headed to the locker room with 33.5 seconds remaining in the opening quarter with a sprained right ankle and did not return.
Kevon Looney grabbed a career-best 11 boards off the bench as the Warriors outrebounded Indiana 51-38, but Golden State only managed to shoot nine free throws.
The teams played for the first time, marking the latest the Warriors ever faced an opponent for the first time in a season — their 74th game.
Kerr said Green still was not feeling well after sweating through shootaround.
Durant, who has fractured rib cartilage, had hoped to play on Tuesday.
“He’s doing great, he wanted to play tonight, but we didn’t let him. We’ll probably let him play Thursday,” Kerr said. “Draymond was scheduled to play tonight, but still wasn’t feeling well. He came to shootaround this morning and got a good sweat in, but still was reporting a lot of discomfort.”
“He hasn’t been healthy in terms of keeping food down, so the illness is still lingering. It made no sense for him to play,” Kerr added. “He wanted to play, but we didn’t let him either. We’re not very nice.”
The Warriors need one victory to reach 55 wins for a fourth straight season — marking the 15th time in NBA history a team has done so. The Spurs were the last, for five seasons from 2012-2017.
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