AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Golden State Warriors Otto Porter Jr. will not play in Thursday night’s Game 5 against the Dallas Mavericks because of a foot injury.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports previously reported Porter—who also missed Golden State’s 119-109 defeat to Dallas in Game 4—was not expected to play on Thursday.
The Warriors originally announced midway through Game 3 the 28-year-old was battling left foot soreness after having been limited to 6:49 on the court. Subsequent X-rays on his foot were negative.
Leading up to Game 5, which tips off Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, the team listed Porter as questionable.
The 6’8″ veteran has been a dependable role player for the Warriors. He averaged 8.2 points and 5.7 rebounds and shot 37.0 percent from three-point range in the regular season. His numbers have gone down slightly in the postseason (5.5 PPG and 4.1 RPG), but that’s to be expected since head coach Steve Kerr is leaning on his starters a little more.
But one downside of Porter’s injury is that Kerr has to move rookie Jonathan Kuminga up the rotation.
After not playing altogether in Games 2 and 3, Kuminga spent 21:39 on the court in Game 4. He posted 17 points and eight rebounds and generally performed well.
NBA G League @nbagleague
Jonathan Kuminga posted ANOTHER big <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAPlayoffs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#NBAPlayoffs</a> game for the <a href=”https://twitter.com/warriors?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@warriors</a>. ????<br><br>The <a href=”https://twitter.com/gleagueignite?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@gleagueignite</a> alum went off for 17 points and 8 rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench last night. This was his third 17+ point game of the postseason. <a href=”https://t.co/PdQMrfOyZw”>pic.twitter.com/PdQMrfOyZw</a>
Still, Kerr appeared to be a bit wary of asking too much of the 19-year-old—he’s averaging 11.6 minutes per game through 11 postseason appearances so far.
The Finals are scheduled to begin on June 2. Golden State closing out the conference finals in Game 5 would allow Porter to have a little extra time off to let his foot heal before the team is back in action.
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