The Warriors will be very happy to welcome back Draymond Green after he served his one game suspension in Game 5. Some will argue that with Green in the lineup, there might not be a need for a Game 6, but that is now in the past and the Warriors are looking to close out this series in Cleveland to avoid a dangerous Game 7 back at Oracle.
The Warriors will be going into the game rejuvenated by Green’s return, but now they will be without yet another starter. Andrew Bogut went down with an injury in Game 5 and it is going to cost him the rest of this series.
Here’s the official update provided by the team:
Warriors center Andrew Bogut, who suffered a significant impaction injury to his left knee during Monday’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals, underwent an MRI yesterday in the Bay Area. The MRI revealed the impact resulted in bone bruises to the proximal tibia and distal femur. He traveled with the team to Cleveland for Game 6, but due to the remaining length of the NBA Finals and expected recovery time, a minimum of 6-8 weeks, he will miss the remainder of the series. The injury will not require surgery and he is expected to make a full recovery.
Bogut was averaging 3.2 points in 12 minutes per game in this series, but his impact on the defensive end does not show in the stat sheet. His presence defensively is one of the reasons the Warriors were one of the premiere defensive teams in the league. Now, they will have to clinch the title without the big Aussie.
While this is an unfortunate situation, the Warriors like to play with their small line-up, so they will have to rely heavily on that. The Warriors will also look Fetus Ezeli and Mo Speights to play the five in Bogut’s absence.
Steve Kerr is one of the brightest minds in the game and he will be ready with a new lineup and gameplan to potentially clinch the title in Cleveland.