SAN FRANCISCO – Warriors shooting guard De’Anthony Melton suffered a sprained left ACL, the Warriors announced Thursday, sidelining him for at least Golden State’s Friday NBA Cup matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Melton will undergo further tests to determine the timetable for recovery. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr didn’t know exactly when he injured his knee during the Warriors’ win Tuesday over the Mavericks.
“He’s obviously a really important player for us, the guy who we envisioned and has done a good job as the starting two-guard,” Kerr said. “It’s a concern, for sure, but we’ll know more over the next few days.”
The Warriors signed Melton to a one-year, $12.8 million deal after he missed most of last season due to back issues. When healthy, the guard is a menacing two-way threat as a point-of-attack defender and confident shooter. But Friday will already be Melton’s sixth missed game.
The past two games, Melton has started alongside Steph Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Draymond Green. It was the Warriors’ most successful starting five so far, and Kerr wanted to stick with it going forward.
Melton’s injury complicates that.
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“It’s disappointing,” Kerr said. “It was really the perfect mix. De’Anthony does a little bit of everything: on-ball defense, rebounding, 3-point shooting, playmaking. Great fit, and that’s why we targeted him. The fact that he’s going to be out the next game is a bummer. We were finding some momentum. We’ll see how this unfolds. We’ve got options, we’ve got a lot of depth and we’re very capable of filling in. But it’s very disappointing for him and for us.”
Some of those options include Moses Moody, Buddy Hield, Brandin Podziemski, Lindy Waters III and Jonathan Kuminga — each of whom has started games this year. Kuminga, though, has thrived in a bench role with more spacing and would be a longshot to rejoin the starting group.
Melton is averaging 10.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He most recently played stout defense on Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving.
With about three minutes left in the Mavericks game, Melton appeared to fall awkwardly and get up gingerly. But he finished the game and played 26 minutes total.
Melton’s earlier injury this year was a mild back sprain. He said it was nothing like what he dealt with last season, but the team treated it with caution. Melton worked over the summer to strengthen his body, particularly his abdominal muscles, to try to prevent back flare-ups.
“It’s not a similar one because at first I didn’t know what it was, as far as what was causing my pain and discomfort,” Melton told this news organization in late October. “Two, it kind of turned into a stress fracture. So I know I’m nowhere near that. And I have a way better core base, strength in the system than I did last year. And the pain I was feeling last year was nowhere near.”
This is a knee injury, though. As a pro, Melton has never suffered a serious knee injury.
Perhaps he still has not. ACL sprains vary significantly in recovery timetable based on the severity. According to online medical sources, a minor sprain (Grade 1) typically takes a few weeks to heal. A Grade 2 sprain would be a partial tear, knocking a patient out for months rather than weeks.
The Warriors and Melton will know more when the results of more tests come back.
“First of all, even in Philly (last year), he’s trying to get right this whole time,” Buddy Hield said. “He works so hard. Every day, he comes in two hours before, gets treatment, works his butt off…Just got to stay the course with him, keep his faith. When he comes back, come back better.”
Notable
— The Warriors assigned wing Gui Santos to the G League. Given how much depth Golden State has, even without Melton, there will be many more minutes for Santos with Santa Cruz than with the Warriors.
— Draymond Green said Curry’s emotional outburst after hitting the “night-night” shot against Dallas — in which he screamed into the camera, ‘You better stay here’ — was at least partly because Klay Thompson ghosted Curry’s phone call the night before the Mavericks game.
Green revealed the story on his podcast.
— With his 37-point performance against the Mavericks, Curry joined Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the only players over 36 years old to put together consecutive 35-point games.
James, 39, broke his own record as the oldest player in NBA history to record three consecutive triple-doubles on Wednesday night.
Not too shabby for the league’s old guard.
“I think they’re both rejuvenated,” said Kerr, who coached both Curry and James in this summer’s Olympics. “I think both guys, at their core, are just such competitors and love winning and love being in the fight. I think it meant so much for both of them to be back in the fight, because the last couple years — last year especially — we didn’t make the playoffs and they got knocked out first round. So it’s been a couple years since both guys and both teams were really in the mix. I think that environment kind of lit the fire again. They’re both excited about trying to be back there on the NBA stage.”