Sources: Warriors' Gary Payton II out indefinitely with brutal thumb injury
03/27/2025 01:30 PM
Golden State Warriors swingman Gary Payton II is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a torn left thumb ligament, league sources told ClutchPoints on Thursday afternoon. Payton sustained the injury in the team’s 112-86 loss to the Miami Heat on Tuesday.
At this time, the Warriors have not presented a clear timetable for how long Payton will be out. Payton will undergo further evaluations over the next few days to examine the extent of the injury and whether he will require surgery, sources said.
Since the start of March, Payton has been an essential part of Steve Kerr’s nightly rotations. Over his last 11 games, Payton has averaged 11.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game while shooting 64.3 percent from the floor and 46.4 percent from three-point range. He has also seen over 20 minutes in eight of his last 11 games.
This is a significant blow to the Warriors’ rotation, especially with the regular season nearing its end and the team battling for playoff position in the Western Conference standings.
After winning 16 out of 19 games, Golden State has lost two straight games on the road to the Atlanta Hawks and Heat. It is worth noting that Stephen Curry was unavailable for both of these losses, as he is recovering from a pelvic contusion he suffered in the team’s last win against the Toronto Raptors on Mar. 20.
The Warriors are optimistic that Curry will be ready to return on Friday on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans.
These back-to-back losses have resulted in the Dubs moving to 41-31, and they are now tied with the LA Clippers for the sixth-best record in the conference. The Clippers defeated the Warriors in all three matchups this season, giving them the season tiebreaker and momentarily pushing Golden State into the play-in region of the standings with 10 games remaining.
Payton has endured several injuries throughout the 2024-25 season, recently suffering a non-displaced nasal fracture that has resulted in the 32-year-old wearing a face mask over his last nine games.
Whether in the starting lineup or coming off the bench, Payton has asserted himself as one of the main driving forces behind the Warriors’ success. He ranks fifth on the team in scoring and has the highest net rating (min. 10 games played) since the start of March. Defensively, Payton has often been tasked with guarding the opposition’s best player.
While he is only listed at 6’2″, Payton plays well above his height. As a result, Kerr and the Warriors utilize him in in different ways, sometimes even having him be their small-ball center when Draymond Green or others are out of the game. His offensive rebounding and ability to create second-chance scoring opportunities make the Warriors’ offense more deadly than it already is with Curry.
There is real concern that Gary Payton II will miss the remaining 10 games on Golden State’s schedule due to this thumb injury. Further updates will be provided by the Warriors at a later time.
The post Sources: Warriors’ Gary Payton II out indefinitely with brutal thumb injury appeared first on ClutchPoints.
