Draymond Green will miss extended time with underlying back issue

MINNEAPOLIS — The Golden State Warriors will have to wait even longer to reunite the trio of Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, after tests revealed a more serious underlying problem to the sore calf that has kept Green out the past four games.

Green’s calf tightness stemmed from a problem with a disc in his lower back, evaluations over the past week by several specialists discovered, and he will miss at least the next two weeks before he is re-evaluated, the Warriors announced Sunday.

“The main thing is to be really safe and cautious for the long season,” coach Steve Kerr said prior to tipoff against the Timberwolves. “That’s my sense, is that we’re being very cautious. … It is what it is. You just push forward and you hope everybody is OK and back soon enough.”

Green felt a “twinge” in his right calf during warmups last Sunday, the night of Klay Thompson’s return from a two-year injury absence. He went through ceremonial pregame introductions and took the court with the starting lineup but issued a foul 7 seconds into the game and hasn’t played since.

Those 7 seconds amount to the only time the Warriors’ core trio has shared on the court since the 2019 NBA Finals.

Green stayed back in San Francisco with Dr. Rick Celebrini, the team’s director of performance, to undergo further tests during their current four-game road trip. Curry left the trip early after falling hard on his right hand Friday night and wasn’t in Minneapolis for the finale of the four-game trip. However, Kerr said that he was “hopeful” Curry would be ready to play by Tuesday night to kick off a seven-game homestand and that the injury wasn’t a long-term concern.

Signs of problems with Green’s lower back first appeared in an MRI taken the night of his last game, last Sunday.

On Saturday night, after consulting several specialists over the past week, Celebrini confirmed the news with Kerr, who has been receiving updates from the staff in San Francisco during the team’s road trip.

Green will undergo physical therapy in the coming days while being monitored by the Warriors training staff and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, the team said. That rules him out for at least the upcoming seven-game homestand.

Green has only missed one longer stretch in his career, when a right toe sprain sidelined him 11 games during the 2018-19 season; the Warriors went 6-5 during that span.

Taking Green’s place in the starting lineup Sunday against the Timberwolves was Otto Porter Jr., but the Warriors will rely on a cast of reserves to fill his shoes, including rookie Jonathan Kuminga, whom Kerr said had his best game of his young career Friday in Milwaukee.

“JK will get more minutes, for sure,” Kerr said. “Juan (Toscano-Anderson) will fill in. So we’ll do it by committee. I’m very confident we can play well in the meantime. … We’ve already been doing it the past three or four games. We’re used to this. Draymond’s missed plenty of games over the years. He’s one of the best players in the league. It’s not easy playing without him, but everybody goes through this.”