The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers will meet Wednesday night at Intuit Dome with a trip to the Western Conference playoffs on the line, but both teams are carrying significant injury concerns into the elimination game.
Tipoff is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET in Inglewood, and the winner will advance in the play-in tournament while the loser’s season will be on the brink.
Golden State listed Jimmy Butler, Moses Moody and Quinten Post as out. Butler is sidelined by right ACL surgery, Moody is out with a left patellar tendon surgery recovery, and Post is unavailable because of right foot injury management.
Those absences matter because the Warriors have already leaned heavily on Stephen Curry, who averaged 26.6 points per game in the regular season, along with Draymond Green’s playmaking and Brandin Podziemski’s all-around production.
The Clippers are also short-handed. Bradley Beal is out with a left hip fracture, Yanic Konan Niederhauser is out with a right Lisfranc ligament tear, and Isaiah Jackson is questionable with a right ankle sprain.
Kawhi Leonard remains the key engine for Los Angeles, posting 27.9 points per game during the season, and the Clippers will need his half-court scoring to offset the missing perimeter and frontcourt pieces.
The injury report adds another layer to a matchup that has already been tightly contested all season. The Clippers won the last three meetings, including a 115-110 home victory on Sunday, while the Warriors opened the series with a 98-79 win in October.
Golden State also enters the game coming off two straight losses, including that Sunday defeat in Los Angeles and a 119-103 loss to the Lakers on April 9. The Clippers, meanwhile, are coming off a 115-110 win over the Warriors but dropped a 116-97 game at Portland two nights earlier.
The numbers suggest both teams will need to survive with what is available rather than what is missing. Golden State averaged 26.6 points from Curry and 20.0 from Butler before his injury, while Los Angeles got 27.9 from Leonard and 19.9 from Darius Garland.
