Warriors bracing for Jonathan Kuminga absence after sprained ankle

SAN FRANCISCO — As Draymond Green held court with reporters in front of his locker, Jonathan Kuminga exited the arena behind him in a hidden alleyway on crutches.

“You alright?” Green asked his teammate.

“Yessir,” Kuminga responded from the hall.

Kuminga sprained his right ankle after landing awkwardly in a crowded paint late in the second quarter of Saturday night’s win over Memphis. He was ruled out for the game shortly after. The team won’t know exactly how severe the sprain is until MRI results come back on Sunday, but head coach Steve Kerr said the injury is “significant” and not a day-to-day ailment.

“Which (expletive) sucks,” Green said.

It sucks because the Warriors need Kuminga, and it sucks because the injury is bound to interrupt the fourth-year wing’s best stretch of his young career. It’s also unfortunate timing, as the Warriors wanted to use these next few weeks to evaluate where the team is at ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

If Kuminga is out of the mix, gauging how far this current group can go becomes indubitably more complicated.

“For sure,” Andrew Wiggins said when asked if the past two weeks have been the best he’s seen Kuminga play. “Just offensively, I know that offensively it’s there. He’s making good decisions, he’s scoring at all three levels. Defensively, I feel like he took a big jump, too. He’s been guarding — on-ball, off-ball. You see the growth every game, he’s getting better and better.”

Kuminga scored 13 points against the Grizzlies before suffering the injury, although he also committed four turnovers. Before Saturday, he 24.3 points and eight rebounds in his prior six games. Kerr repeatedly described the stretch as a “breakthrough” — and a different one than previous flashes, he added.

After Kuminga exited on Saturday, Wiggins stepped up in a major way. He scored two points in the first half before erupting for 18 in the third quarter, sinking six straight shots. Grizzlies wing Desmond Bane lit a fire under him after he rammed through him for an and-1. Wiggins tried to return the favor on a fast-break opportunity only to whiff and trip out of bounds.

But after that, he was as aggressive offensively as he’s been all season.

“We definitely need that Wiggs because he’s one of the few guys who can actually get to the hole with that athleticism with that type of athleticism,” Green said. “We definitely need that aggressive Wiggs. And we’ll stay on him about being aggressive.”

Kyle Anderson, who was out of the rotation for the past couple weeks, played 21 minutes and made a strong two-way impact down the stretch while Golden State held off the Grizzlies. Anderson does not play anything remotely like Kuminga, but can guard up in size better and has always been an excellent passer.

Both Wiggins and Anderson project to be key in treading water without Kuminga — for however long he’s out.

“There was a reason we signed him and Buddy (Hield),” Kerr said. “We added a lot of depth for this reason, to be able to withstand some injuries. It’s going to be tough. JK has been playing the best basketball of his career these last couple weeks. So we’re going to miss him, but Kyle will fill in well.”