Privately, the future Hall of Famer has been accused of using anonymous social media accounts to trash his teammates. Publicly, his expressions of exasperation are a common sight as his Rockets coworkers brick shots or both defensive rotations.

But there is no argument that he would be better off around his old Warriors fling, who flirted with trading for him last February before moving on to Jimmy Butler.

While the Rockets enter Thursday’s home game seeded third in the West and winners of seven of 10, the visiting and hobbling Warriors (31-30) are clinging to the eighth seed after losing two in a row.

Steph Curry has missed the past 11 games and will be out at least another 10 days with runner’s knee.

Kristaps Porzingis has been sidelined since mid-February with what coach Steve Kerr has dubbed a “mysterious” health condition, after Porzingis previously disclosed that he has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. And of course, Butler is now rehabbing from a season-ending ACL tear.

Draymond Green’s offense has totally abandoned him of late – he is minus-107 in his last nine games played without Curry.

Youngsters Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos and Moses Moody – who is out Thursday with a wrist injury – have displayed noticeable improvement with increased opportunity since the calendar turned to 2026, but none are a franchise cornerstone for the post-Curry era.

These are not exactly ideal circumstances to begin a three-game trip that is shortly followed by a grueling six-games-in-nine-days gauntlet through much of the Eastern Conference.

It is the kind of scenario that would beget tanking for a better draft pick for many franchises whose top four players are either old, injured or both.

Not the Warriors.

“We have to find ways to be better, and get ready for the next one,” 39-year-old center Al Horford said after Monday’s loss to the Clippers. “We’re moving on to Houston and seeing how we can go in there, and compete, and get a win.”

A righteous desire to compete till the end isn’t the only reason the Warriors are shunning this approach.

Yes, the Warriors entered Wednesday night just 1.5 games ahead of the Clippers and just 2.5 above the Blazers for the No. 8 seed, which requires just one play-in victory to reach the playoffs. But there is no realistic way Golden State tumbles to the No. 11 seed, out of the play-in tournament entirely and into better lottery odds.

The shorthanded Warriors dismantled the lifeless Grizzlies in southwest Tennessee by 20 points a week ago. Memphis is 23-37, 7.5 games back of the Warriors and obviously tanking after trading Jaren Jackson Jr. at the deadline.

Even if the Warriors stumble against both the contending Rockets and Thunder to begin the trip, they finish with a likely victory over the Jazz, whose desire not to field a competitive team has caught the eye of the league office.

The Warriors are thus persisting in the oddest of spots between the tankers and the contenders during the playoff push.

They’re stuck making the postseason.

Can’t worry about the uncertainties or the unknowns of the season,” Podziemski said. “At least that’s how I approach it and I just try to go out there and give it my best every night.”

Leonard did not even have the ball. Not that it mattered to the Warriors guard, whose intensity never waned for even a single moment. 

Facing one of the greatest players of the generation in isolation? Williams – on a two-way contract – saw no reason to fret. 

“He’s a great player, but he bleeds just like I bleed,” Williams said of Leonard postgame. “I don’t fear no challenge.”

Now, he might have an unexpected opportunity to showcase that dogged determination after scoring 18 points in the Warriors’ loss Monday night to Leonard’s Clippers.

Moses Moody jammed his shooting right wrist and injured his shoulder during the game.

If the Warriors’ everyday starting wing will need to miss time – or even if Moody is good to go come Thursday’s showdown in Houston – coach Steve Kerr expressed confidence in the team’s newest addition.

“I think he’s important anyway, given all the guys who are absent right now,” Kerr said. “I think Nate has played really well. It’s fun watching him, a young player, pretty live body, can make a shot.” 

It isn’t the first time Williams has wowed in the Bay Area. The Rochester, New York native spent his senior year of high school in Napa at Prolific Prep in 2017. Having found his way back to the Bay Area, Williams, now 27, has made a solid first impression with the Warriors. 

With Jimmy Butler out for the season with an ACL tear, Kristaps Porzingis still ailing from a mysterious illness and Steph Curry still at least a week away from returning, the Warriors need some firepower. 

Williams, who has played in 47 NBA games across the previous three seasons for Portland and Houston, is nowhere in the same stratosphere as the Warriors’ stars as a scorer.

He has averaged just 3.9 points per game in the league. 

But through sheer hustle on the glass and with a streaky catch-and-shoot jumper, Williams does bring an unpredictable dimension to a stagnant Warriors attack. 

Against the Clippers, he grabbed two offensive boards and drew six foul shots while playing far taller than his spindly 6-foot-5 frame. 

It capped what had been a hectic last four days for Williams, who, according to Kerr, also recently became a father. 

He played 36 minutes Friday in Santa Cruz and scored 26 points for the Warriors’ G League team against San Diego. 

Then he made the commute up the coast and the most of his 15 minutes against the Lakers on Saturday, scoring seven points and dishing out two assists. 

Williams turned around just 18 hours later and put in 10 points in 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon, facing the G League Clippers again at Chase Center as part of the SeaDubs’ yearly showcase in San Francisco. 

Finally, he played 18 more minutes in Monday’s loss as one of the few bright spots for Golden State. 

“He’s a guy who knows who he is, and that’s always a good thing,” veteran center Al Horford said. “You can always use guys who bring that energy and have a toughness to them.”

It is a heavy workload for a player who just signed with the Warriors on a two-way contract two weeks ago. But Williams sees it as no big deal. 

After all, all he has wanted is an opportunity. Now Williams is ready to make the most of it. 

“They’re just teaching me, telling me the plays and throwing me in the fire,” Williams said. “I’m loving it.” 

The intensity that typically ricochets from the bench funneled through a microphone instead as Nakase stepped into the broadcast booth for the Golden State Warriors’ matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers, offering analysis rather than play calls. 

Nakase shared the telecast with women’s basketball icon Cheryl Miller, who said beforehand that her partner was “a natural” and already “running the show,” joking that she even gave Nakase permission to let a little sideline-style fire slip through the mic. 

The assignment also carried personal weight.

Opposite the Warriors’ bench stood Clippers coach Tyronn Lue, Nakase’s longtime mentor. For one night, the coach known for her edge and emotion wasn’t diagramming plays for the longtime NBA coach. She was dissecting them, bringing the same competitive spark from the hardwood to the headset. 

“It’s a full-circle moment,” Nakase said of Lue before Monday’s game. “I’ll get to learn again because I get to see him in action, so that’ll be fun. … I owe him a lot and he’s a huge reason why I wear this hat today.” 

And once the ball went up, the gratitude and perspective came through in real time. 

The 45-year-old coach layered the broadcast with personal insight, explaining to the viewers how Lue taught her the value of patience. 

She broke down Steve Kerr’s pick-and-roll defense, praising the discipline behind the Warriors’ defensive rotations, and offered a coach’s eye view of what made the defense click. 

When big man Al Horford swatted away a shot in the second quarter, Nakase cracked a joke about how the veteran still had a little bounce in his game, blending the humor with her appreciation for his longevity.

Nakase also made sure to get a laugh out of herself when the broadcast suddenly showed a picture of her back in her UCLA playing days. Miller pointed out that Nakase’s shorts looked more like sweatpants, to which she said, “You guys are embarrassing me.” 

When the conversation switched to Steph Curry’s absence, Nakase spoke like someone who knows the aches of waiting. She noted how she believed Curry was “dying to get out there,” then later in the game, drew a parallel to the Valkyries’ own stretch without All-Star Kayla Thornton. 

“She was our leader. She was our defensive stopper. So nothing can replace KT. We all had to do it collectively,” Nakase said on the broadcast. “Credit again, to my brilliant staff, but also to the players for being coachable. We coached them hard. They didn’t mind it. They didn’t mind me yelling at them, cursing at them, because they wanted to win. They wanted to win at any cost.”

For Valkyries fans, that perspective, and her visible presence on an NBA stage, felt like more than a one-night cameo. With ongoing WNBA collective bargaining negotiations casting uncertainty over next season and raising the possibility of a potential lockout, Nakase’s appearance offered a tangible reminder of what’s ahead: A franchise still building, still preparing and still pushing forward. 

Even against the unsettled backdrop, Nakase isn’t operating as if anything is on pause. She said her staff is already deep into the offseason preparation. 

“We just had our coaches retreat,” Nakase said. “I killed my coaches in the mornings. We had morning workouts. We did some on the stairs. We did some yoga. We did some beach walking, and then just enjoyed the sun. I gave them a little bit of relaxation, a little bit of Vitamin D. But we’re ready. We’re gearing up.” 

Even from a different vantage point, Nakase’s presence resonated. 

For one night, the roles were flipped. The former assistant was studying her mentor from above instead of alongside him. The coach known for pacing the sideline was now narrating it. But the respect between them remains unchanged, the connection still evident in the way they spoke about each other. 

“It’s always great to see Natalie,” Lue said before the game. “Her (broadcasting) the game is something different. But as I said, it is full circle, and it’s always great to see Natalie.”

The Warriors entered the night as the eighth seed and up 2.5 games on the Clippers, which meant that if the play-in tournament began that night, the Warriors would be guaranteed a trip to the postseason with just a win over the No. 7 seed.

So when the Clippers rallied to beat the Warriors 114-101, a result that cut the Warriors (31-30) lead over the Clippers (29-31) to just 1.5 games.

“You can’t get too high or too low,” Al Horford said. “You have to be able to stay the course.”

The Warriors, missing Steph Curry till at least mid-March with runner’s knee, got 22 points from Brandin Podziemski. Twenty of those came in the first half. Horford put up 17 points and six rebounds while De’Anthony Melton had an uncharacteristic tough shooting night and made just 3 of 14 from the field.

Kawhi Leonard scored 23 for the Clippers, while Kris Dunn poured in 16.

The Clippers outscored the Warriors 70-45 in the second half, with Melton, Podziemski and Moses Moody combining for just four points in the second half. Moody left the game midway through the fourth quarter and went back to the locker room. He sustained a hard fall while scrapping for a loose ball in the second quarter but played through it.

“He jammed his shooting wrist, shooting hand, and also hurt his shoulder during the game,” coach Steve Kerr said. “But no update. We’ll just see how he’s feeling tomorrow.”

The Clippers were coming off a blowout victory at home over the Pelicans the night before, while the Warriors had spent a day off smarting from their own blowout loss to the Lakers in Chase Center. 

The Warriors led 31-19 after one quarter, holding the Clippers to just 7 of 25 shooting despite having Darius Garland make his Clippers debut after being traded for James Harden at the deadline. That lead stood at 56-42 at halftime, but it was not to last. 

Buoyed by the return of Darius Garland, who had been out with a toe injury since being traded from the Cavaliers, the Clippers cut the Warriors’ lead to 79-77 by the end of three quarters. A Kris Dunn layup with 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter gave the Clippers an 84-82 lead, an advantage they would not relinquish.

The Warriors will have two days off before embarking to Houston to begin a three-game road trip.

New starting lineup

The Warriors attempted to get some much-needed spacing into their lineup by mixing up the starting five, inserting Podziemski into the group alongside Melton, Moses Moody, Horford and Draymond Green. 

Steve Kerr has repeatedly emphasized that the team needs to be creative to find spacing around Green while Curry battles runner’s knee, and the new starting lineup brought four capable 3-point shooters onto the floor.

That combination played only three minutes together in the first quarter, with Gui Santos entering with Golden State up 6-4. They then played the first five minutes of the third quarter, being outscored by two points before Santos once again entered with the Warriors up 63-53. 

Nate Williams gets extended run

Nate Williams has had a lot on his plate over the past 48 hours. The soon-to-be father played in Sunday’s G League showcase between the Santa Cruz Warriors and San Diego Clippers, and then turned around and participated in the major league version the next day as a Two-Way player.

The energetic 6-foot-5 wing earned first-quarter minutes from Steve Kerr, and rewarded the coach by giving maximum effort during his stints on the court. He put up 18 points, scoring all of his points off hustle around the rim, at the line and from behind the arc.

He also gave Kawhi Leonard his undivided attention. At one point in the third quarter, he maintained a defensive position and shuffled his feet from baseline to baseline while shadowing the future Hall of Famer …. who did not have the ball.

The 25-year-old Williams made his case for more minutes in the future.

Porzingis, Richard injury update

Kristaps Porzingis missed his fifth consecutive game with what the team is generically calling an “illness” on Monday night. The big man has played in only one game for the Warriors since being traded from the Hawks, and coach Steve Kerr was uncertain if Porzingis will join the team on its upcoming three-game road trip that begins on Thursday in Houston.

Porzingis has been diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but Kerr said it was not clear if Porzingis’ illness was related to POTS.

“It’s a little mysterious, and obviously we’re working with him and hoping he can get some clarity and break through and get to a point where he’s consistently healthy,” Kerr said. “That’s something the medical staff is working hard on with him. I’m not going to posit any medical theories.”

Meanwhile, Will Richard was seen moving around the locker room in a walking boot on his right ankle. He remains out with an ankle sprain.

But now his stardom has apparently reached another level.

Ultra-popular Korean girl group Blackpink referenced the Warriors veteran in the song “Me and My” in their new album, “Deadline”, which was released on Friday.

“Just me and my Day 1s, pretty girls walkin’. Golden like we Draymond, they pay us for a walk-in,” is the line sung by Blackpink’s Lisa. 

Green didn’t paint himself as a super-fan, but he appreciated being referenced by one of K-Pop’s most popular groups. He broke out a wide smile and began nodding his head when asked about the song after finishing his shooting drills at Chase Center. 

“It’s pretty exciting, man,” Green told the Bay Area News Group after Monday’s shootaround. “You get name-dropped in a rap song, it’s pretty fun. When you get name-dropped in a K-Pop song, you may be a pretty big deal.”

In the world of K-Pop, there are few groups are bigger than Blackpink.

In mid-February, Blackpink became the first music group to surpass 100 million subscribers on YouTube. They boast 24 million monthly listeners on streaming platform Spotify. 

Being mentioned in songs by chart-toppers is nothing new for Green, who said that getting a mention from his “GOAT” Jay-Z in an album would be his dream name-drop. 

Hip-hop titan Drake said “you know Chubbs like Draymond” during “Summer Sixteen” back in 2016, a reference to Green protecting Steph Curry like Drake’s bodyguard Chubbs protects the Canadian artist. 

This is also far from the first time a group from the K-Pop industry has dabbled in the NBA world. 

Aside from vintage NBA jerseys having been a mainstay in music videos since at least the early 2010s – anyone remember Girls Generation rocking Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce attire circa 2014? – the NBA has been proactive in tapping into the rabid fanbases that follow K-Pop groups. 

Girl group Le Sserafim headlined a “Friends of the NBA” program in 2024, and purple-and-gold Chaewon jerseys can still be seen at Lakers games. 

And in the Bay Area, a member of boy group GOT7 was instrumental in getting then-Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins voted into the 2022 NBA All-Star game, voicing his support for Wiggins on social media. 

Green has watched “K-Pop Demon Hunters” with his kids, but is not quite as rabid as the fans who spend thousands of dollars on tickets to sold-out concerts. But both he and people in his personal circle were well aware of how big Blackpink is in the music scene.  

He was bombarded with messages after the album came out, but has not yet heard the song.

“I’m waiting to listen to it with my kids, and we’re supposed to listen to it on the way to the game,” Green said. “My daughters love K-Pop.”

Or, at least, the few dozen fans who hadn’t already beaten the traffic were.

“Thank you, Warriors!” was the chant from the lower bowl as Jonathan Kuminga stepped to the free-throw line during the Hawks’ 135-101 throttling of Portland.

It was Atlanta’s third straight win since acquiring the young forward, and suddenly, the narrative was set. Kuminga is thriving. The Hawks are rolling.

The Dubs, meanwhile, are a sad, depressing mess.

The combination has made it incredibly fashionable to ask: Did the Golden State Warriors make a colossal mistake by trading Jonathan Kuminga to the Hawks?

The answer is a resounding yes.

But not for the reason the box-score watchers think.

The mistake wasn’t finally pulling the plug on the Kuminga experiment. The mistake was dragging it out for years, stubbornly clutching a depreciating asset while better offers came and went.

Golden State’s front office couldn’t quit the idea of a young, athletic wing, ignoring a mountain of evidence that he simply did not fit — and that he had no plans on trying to anytime soon.

Their reward for this year-long bout of organizational denial? Kristaps Porzingis. A big man with a mysterious autoimmune disorder and a looming contract situation that will require two PhDs — one in immunology, one in capology — to figure out.

Jettisoning a former lottery pick for that kind of baggage isn’t just selling low: It’s a yard sale in a thunderstorm.

But trading Kuminga? That was the only thing the Warriors got right.

Kuminga looks good in red and yellow right now. He’s putting up 21 points and eight boards. The dunks are undeniably spectacular.

And he is unquestionably a better fit for what the Hawks do than what the Warriors do.

Atlanta plays a high-energy, run-and-gun system that feasts on the transition offense that it creates with its exceptional defensive length.

Meanwhile, Kuminga is great at running fast and jumping high.

Furthermore, the Hawks run a five-out offense that swaps the center and power forward on the perimeter, giving him miles of space and asking absolutely nothing complicated of him. No deft cutting. No setting crucial off-ball screens.

He went from playing chess in the Bay to playing checkers in the A.

So naturally, other checkers players are looking at his early success has birthed the narrative that Golden State “held him back.”

That argument only works if you conveniently ignore that the Warriors’ complex read-and-react system — the one that made Kuminga look like a man trying to read a menu in a dark restaurant — was built to maximize the greatest shooter who ever lived and produced four championship parades. The idea that Golden State should have blown up its offensive identity to accommodate Kuminga is patently absurd.

And yet that argument persists.

If those folks were to skip the YouTube highlights and ignore the box score and watch the actual games, a much different reality emerges.

This is the exact same Kuminga. He just has a greener light and weaker opponents.

So let’s pump the brakes on the Springfield induction.

Kuminga is playing well, but he dropped these numbers against the Washington Wizards (twice) and the Portland Trail Blazers. The Wizards are currently operating as a basketball-themed tax write-off — they’re doing everything in their power to lose as often as possible.

And against the Blazers on Sunday, Kuminga scored 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter of a game that was already a blowout. It’s garbage-time heroics masquerading as a superstar turn. Just like old times.

Watch the tape. Guys are still blowing past him on defense. The ball still sticks in his hands on offense. It’s the exact same stuff that drove Steve Kerr to the point of a breakdown.

But, again, the dunks are cool.

To be fair, there’s a lot there for Atlanta to like. He’s a pretty good player.

“He is really focused on moving the ball and being unselfish,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder gushed last week.

Man, where have we heard that before?

Oh, right. That’s the exact same thing Kerr said during Kuminga’s five-game hot streak to start the year, right before he reverted to form and the relationship cratered.

Maybe Atlanta is the perfect basketball utopia for Kuminga. Maybe he’ll shoot 67 percent from the floor for the rest of his natural life. Or maybe, just maybe, the guy is just the undisputed king of first impressions.

It’ll be a while before Atlanta plays a team with a pulse, so the hype train will probably keep chugging along. The fans can keep chanting their sarcastic “thank yous” to the Bay Area all they want.

But let’s check back in at the end of the season, when the opponents are serious and more than athleticism is required to win.

What will Atlanta fans still be chanting then?

But for Judy Bowers, the number of points her son scored in the team’s 122-100 victory over the San Diego Clippers on Sunday afternoon’s G League showcase mattered little. Just watching Chance put on his No. 55 Warriors jersey and play on the hometown team’s yellow Chase Center court was enough to have her beaming.

“I’m so proud, overwhelmed,” Bowers told the Bay Area News Group from her seats in the lower bowl. “This was special.”

Bowers was not the only member of the family in the building. Older brother Justin and sister Joi were also present and proud.

“It was amazing to watch him play here at home … I know he likes to try to put on a show, especially whenever we’re around, so it was definitely special for me as a big brother,” Justin said, with Joi adding, “Being able to watch him play and succeed in his dreams, and do something he’s just loved to do since he was a child, it definitely gives me a special feeling as a big sister.”

McMillian was a three-time Tri-County Athletic League player of the year as a high school phenom in Vallejo – twice at St. Patrick-St. Vincent, once at Bethel – before a five-year collegiate career split between Grand Canyon and Texas Tech. 

The Warriors signed him as an undrafted free agent after the draft, but ankle surgery sidelined him for all of summer league and the preseason. 

Since returning from injury, McMillian has averaged 15.9 points per game and shot 36.4% from 3-point territory, along the way developing an off-the-dribble game that he will need if he wants to break through to the NBA.

“What we’re looking for from him when he is the lead guard is him just trying to make the simple reads, so he can go out there and show off his skillset,” Santa Cruz coach Lainn Wilson said.

A breakthrough into the NBA is still the goal for McMillian, but such lofty goals were the last thing on his mind on Sunday afternoon. He was focused on the opportunity to play in front of friends and loved ones.

“It was awesome, I loved it,” McMillian said. “I felt comfortable because I was playing in front of people I know, who saw me play when I was younger.”

Another Allocco in the Bay

The Allocco name belongs to basketball royalty on both sides of the Bay Area. 

Frank Allocco Sr. led a preps dynasty at De La Salle in Concord before becoming an associate head coach at USF. 

His son, Frank Jr., is an accomplished coach at Clayton Valley Charter and came within two points of stunning the high school basketball scene on Friday in a near-upset of top-ranked Salesian. 

Young relative Matt Allocco is adding to the family’s hoops legacy in his own way on the court. Undrafted out of Notre Dame – Frank Sr.’s alma mater – he has become an integral piece of the San Diego Clippers’ rotation. 

The 6-foot-4 Allocco is averaging 4.6 points and 3.1 rebounds, numbers suppressed by a back injury that has hampered him at times this season. 

“(Clippers president of basketball operations) Lawrence (Frank) called me one night and asked ‘Why did you put Allocco back in the game,’ and I said ‘because I can depend on him to get a damn rebound,” San Diego Clippers coach Paul Hewitt said. “… Just a reliable player.’”

Old coach thrilled for Santos

The G League is all about advancement, about earning a bigger opportunity in the NBA or a major professional league abroad, with the ultimate sign of success being a long-term contract.

Former SeaDub Gui Santos signed a three-year, $15 million contract to stay with the Warriors after enjoying a breakout third season. 

He spent large swaths of the 2023-24 season in Santa Cruz as a spindly perimeter player with a great attitude and energy, but lacking in skills.

Santos averaged 15.1 points per game in February and made 41.3% of his 3-pointers during the month. 

So when Santa Cruz’s Lainn Wilson saw a dramatically-improved and financially-rewarded Santos earlier on Saturday, he couldn’t help but embrace the Brazilian. 

“It’s a point of pride to see him with Santa Cruz to begin his career, and he’s always been this play hard guy who has impacted the margins,” Wilson said. “To see him break through and get this contract for himself, it’s a big part of why we do this.”

Ron Adams’ influence

During his pregame press conference, Hewitt spoke at length about the importance of mentorship when it came to improving as a coach. He specifically highlighted longtime Golden State assistant Ron Adams as an influence on his career. 

Hewitt was an assistant coach at Villanova in the late 1990s when he struck up a friendship with then-Trail Blazers scout Adams, who by then already had enjoyed a coaching career that spanned decades. 

“A couple times a week, we’d go to lunch and just talk basketball,” Hewitt said. “Not everything Ron said, I agreed with, but a lot of it made me start thinking about things. We kept that friendship over the years.”

A few years later, when Hewitt was the head coach of Siena College in New York, Adams asked him of Hewitt had any interest in an open job at ACC powerhouse Georgia Tech. Hewitt was skeptical that he’d even have a shot.

“A couple weeks later, I got a call from the AD,” Hewitt recalled. 

Adams, 78, is still a consultant with the Warriors and is at most games.  

Steph Curry will be re-evaluated in 10 days as he continues to recover from inflammation in his right knee, Golden State announced in a press release on Sunday afternoon. It will keep him out another five games, and the earliest he could return is a home game on March 13 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

The Warriors embark on a six-game trip immediately after, including dates with the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, three of the East’s top teams.

The extension of Curry’s absence was not a surprise after Curry’s interview with ESPN the day before during the Warriors’ 129-101 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. He said he was “feeling better” and that “there has been progress,” but made it obvious that it will be a while before he suits up for the Warriors again. 

“I haven’t gotten on the court yet,” Curry said on the national broadcast. “But (I’m) just trying to stay in shape, strengthen everything else around my body knowing that at this stage, once you get back, it’s kind of a full sprint to the playoffs.”

Curry also noted that even when he does return, he does not expect to be 100 percent.  

“Once I get back on the court, it is a little bit of a pain tolerance thing,” Curry said, before adding, “but it’s just something that you don’t want to have lingering because it can get worse.”

Curry has missed the past 10 games since leaving during the third quarter of the Pistons game on Jan. 31. 

He is averaging 27.2 points per game in 39 games played, but because he will not play in at least 65 games, Curry will not be eligible for the All-NBA or any other seasonal award even if he does return to the court before the postseason. 

The Warriors are 31-29 and slotted as the eighth seed, a full 2.5 games ahead of Portland in ninth and three games above the 10th-seeded Clippers in the final play-in spot. 

Golden State will host the Clippers on Monday evening (7 p.m., NBC Sports Bay Area). 

Richard injury update

Rookie guard Will Richard left Saturday’s game against the Lakers after spraining his ankle in the first quarter and will miss Monday’s game against the Clippers.

Richard has played in 30 of the Warriors’ last 31 games, solidifying his place as a role player while the lineup has fluctuated around him due to injury. He had scored in double digits three of the last four games before going down Saturday, including 21 points as a starter in Wednesday’s short-handed win in Memphis.

Coach Steve Kerr said Richard’s ankle was taped up postgame in the locker room Saturday.

Porzingis remains out

Kristaps Porzingis was also ruled out for Monday’s game as he deals with an illness.

Porzingis has played just one game for the Warriors since they acquired him early last month in exchange for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield. He returned from an Achilles injury for Golden State’s game Feb. 19 against the Boston Celtics, but has missed the four games since with an illness.

The 30-year-old center has missed time with illness dating to last season, his final one with the Celtics, but the Warriors have indicated this new illness is unrelated.

Gary Payton II is also listed as questionable for Monday’s game with a left ankle injury.

The Lakers took charge early and were never seriously threatened, winning 129-101 and improving to 35-24 in the Western Conference. The Warriors, who struggled with their shooting in falling too far behind in the first half, fell to 31-29. The Warriors can only hope for some good news regarding guard Stephen Curry (knee) and center Kristaps Porzingis (illness) in the coming days — otherwise maybe even a play-in game will be too much to ask.

If the Warriors do somehow rally and close on the Lakers, the loss Saturday night meant they’re now 1-2 against their Southern California rivals in the head-to-head tiebreaker.

“They played a fantastic game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “They came in locked in, and I thought getting off to a slow start hurt us because for us to win right now, it’s got to be about energy and winning extra possessions, crashing the boards, forcing turnovers. We fell behind, they were playing with the lead the entire game and we couldn’t climb back in it.”

The moral of the story? It helps to have a healthy Big Three. In Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reeves, the Lakers have a nowhere-to-turn element that was way too much for the Warriors to deal with.

Dončić, the NBA’s leading scorer at 32.7 points per game coming in, led the Lakers with 26 points on 9-for-17 shooting, including 4-for-9 on 3-point attempts. James had 22 points, 19 of them in the first half, and Reeves had 18. They would have had more had not Lakers coach J.J. Redick emptied the bench in the fourth quarter. Luke Kennard added 16 for the Lakers and Jake LaRavia 15.

“It was definitely our most complete game since the All-Star break,” Redick said.

Los Angeles shot 53.5 percent from the floor (48-for-90) and was 19-for-41 on 3-point attempts. The Warriors were 12-for-44 from beyond the 3-point line.

“It’s been a while since we had a 48-minute game, where we were able to sustain the effort,” James said. “At the start, we came in with the right mindset.”

For the Warriors, forward Gui Santos had 14 points, with Gary Payton II and Moses Moody scoring 12 each. Draymond Green, who missed the last two games with lower back soreness, was back in the starting lineup and had seven points with six rebounds and six assists.

Dončić hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half, two of the step-back variety and another a good three feet beyond the top of the key, with the Lakers leading by as much as 26 points in the third quarter. He hit a fourth 3-pointer and had 22 points with 7:07 left in the quarter.

When Brandin Podziemski fired up an airball at the third-quarter buzzer, the Warriors were down by 27 points at 99-72.

“A defensive mentality is the most important thing,” Kerr said. “We have to come out with some pop, some energy. I just didn’t feel we were engaged as defensively as we needed to be.”

The Lakers’ Big Three were way too much for the Warriors to handle, trailing 65-47 at intermission and leading by 20 or more for much of the second quarter.

Going into the game, Kerr was hoping to speed things up to get better shots with Curry still on the mend. Instead, it was Dončić and James, dominating the ball until it was time to take a shot and keeping the tempo in the Lakers’ favor.

“It’s tough to speed up Luka and LeBron because the play so slow,” Moody said. “That’s kind of how it works.”

And with Reeves in the mix as well?

“They were knocking down a lot of shots,” Moody said. “They were creating shots for each other. They were locked in, and it’s our job to hinder them. But they did a good job tonight.”

James had 20 first-half points to lead Los Angeles, followed by 13 from Reeves and 10 from Dončić.

The Warriors? Top defender Payton had 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting and was their only player in double figures at the break. The Warriors were 18 of 45 from the floor overall and 5-for-24 from 3-point land, while Los Angeles was 9 of 17.

James had a 3-pointer and a 3-point play early in the second quarter to put the Lakers up 41-20 when Kerr called time with 10:04 left in the half.

The Lakers were off and shooting while fans were still settling into their seats, leading by as much as 17 points with the Warriors closing within 33-20 at the end of the first quarter.

Los Angeles was 12 of 22 overall and 5-for-9 on 3-point attempts, with Reeves leading the Lakers with 11 points and James getting six. Meanwhile, the Warriors were 9-for-26, with starting guard De’Andre Melton missing his first five shots. The Warriors were 2-for-13 on 3-point attempts in the quarter, with no one scoring more than four points.

Green started off the Warriors’ scoring with a dunk but that was his lone basket of the quarter.

SANTOS’ SURPRISE

After signing a three-year contract extension worth a maximum of $15 million, Santos called home to Brazil with a solemn tone in his voice to speak to his parents.

“They were very excited, emotional, you know, because they know how tough it was for me to make it here,” Santos said. “I told them I had something serious to talk about. First they thought I got my fiancee pregnant.”

The Warriors (31-28) made it clear, however, that Gui Santos would be part of the solution, announcing a multi-year contract extension to the Brazilian born forward in advance of their game Saturday night at Chase Center against the Los Angeles Lakers (34-24).

Coach Steve Kerr also announced that Kristaps Porzingis would not face the Lakers due to an extended illness and that his availability will be revisited when the Warriors host the Los Angeles Clippers Monday night.

Draymond Green (back) is returning to the starting lineup against the Lakers while guard Stephen Curry (knee) remains out.

The Santos deal, according to ESPN, was for three years and $15 million and includes a player option for 2028-29.

“I’m happy for Gui and happy for us,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He has been such an important player for us but also just an incredible development story. You just appreciate when somebody is able to rise up from the bottom of the second round to where he is now as a crucial player for us. But it only happens because of his fortitude, his work ethic and commitment.”

A second-round pick (No. 55 overall) in 2022, Santos has played in 48 games with 13 starts this season and has participated in the developmental G-League. In the last 12 games, Santos has been in double figures 11 times, averaging 15.0 points on 58.8 percent shooting with coach Kerr calling him one of their top “shot creators,” even if his style is a little unorthodox. He’s also shot 43.1 percent from 3-point range with 5.6 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 28.8 minutes during that span.

Kerr said he and general manager Mike Dunleavy had discussed getting Santos locked up for some time but wasn’t sure if his recent run of success accelerated the process.

Asked about his ascension Friday following practice, Santos cited patience.

“When I got here, I was a point guard playing in Brazil, playing like a point guard, having the ball in my hand,” Santos said. “Then I spent the whole year in the G-League just learning how to fit in the system here because my goal was always playing in the NBA and playing for the Warriors.”

At first, that was easy enough since his instructions were basically to play hard on defense, crash the boards, and as Santos put it “get the ball to Steph.”

Yet Santos has given a good enough version of himself with Curry out of the lineup to merit an extension.

“Right now they give me the option or the opportunity to show a little bit more after we lost Jimmy (Butler),” Santos said. “With Draymond (back) out it’s given me more space to show a little bit more of what I can do. I’m glad they’re trusting me.”

Butler’s absence for the season with a torn ACL on Jan. 19 coincided with Santos first getting more meaningful minutes.

“I think with Jimmy out, there has been a void in terms of having someone capable of getting into the paint and either scoring or distributing,” Kerr said. “And he’s pretty good at that. He’s probably been our best shot creator of late, just in terms of finding something out of nothing. And he does it in multiple ways. He can do it in a one-on-one situation or off the dribble. Without Jimmy he has really seized the opportunity.”

Porzingis illness

Kerr gave up what he considered to be a few unnecessary and inaccurate deals in an interview with 95.7 The Game Friday regarding Porzingis. He said Porzingis was merely sick and that it wasn’t postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, something the 7-foot-2 center told The Athletic before the season he was dealing with.

Porzingis has missed the last four games.

“It was a stupid mistake by me to talk about something I’m not qualified to talk about,” Kerr said. “I regretted even trying to discuss the diagnosis, and I need to leave that to the professionals.”

Porzingis arrived on Feb. 5 from Atlanta in exchange for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield. In his only appearance with the Warriors, he scored 12 points on Feb. 19 in 17:15 of playing time. Kuminga, meanwhile, is averaging 22.0 points, coming off the bench in his first game and starting in his second game for Atlanta.

Saturday’s starters

Kerr’s starting lineup Saturday against the Lakers featured Green at center, Santos and Moses Moody at forward and guards De’Anthony Melton and Brandin Podziemski.