{"id":60676,"date":"2024-01-03T17:48:50","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T22:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=60676"},"modified":"2024-01-03T17:48:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T22:48:50","slug":"nba-rumorshow-malaki-branham-gary-payton-ii-injuries-affect-the-spurs-and-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/01\/03\/nba-rumorshow-malaki-branham-gary-payton-ii-injuries-affect-the-spurs-and-warriors\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Rumors:How Malaki Branham  &#038; Gary Payton II Injuries Affect The Spurs and Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/branhma01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Malaki Branham<\/strong><\/a> suffered an ankle injury last night in the first quarter of the San Antonio Spurs&#8217; 106-98 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Branham did not return to the contest, finishing with two points on 1 of 5 shooting. He also contributed one rebound and an assist while committing one turnover in seven and a half minutes of playing time.<\/p>\n<p>According to Tom Osborne of the San Antonio Express, Branham&#8217;s injury is not considered severe. But he will likely get re-evaluated today.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Told Malaki&#39;s injury isn&#39;t major, but best not to chance further injury by continuing to play him.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tom_orsborn\/status\/1742360646937637065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>NBA Rumors: How Malaki Branham &amp; Gary Payton II Injuries Affect The Spurs and Warriors<\/h2>\n<p>After coming off the bench for the first month of the season, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/07\/25\/2023-24-nba-power-rankings-offseason-edition-no-28-san-antonio-spurs\/\" target=\"_self\">Spurs<\/a> have been willing to be patient through the 20-year-old&#8217;s mistakes as he tries to learn the point guard position.<\/p>\n<p>Known as a scorer in his lone year at Ohio State, Branham spent a little time as the lead guard last season, but now it appears to be his job for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt\u2019s<em> a whole new world for him, and he\u2019s absorbing it every game, basically trying to figure out the role,\u201d<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressnews.com\/sports\/spurs\/article\/spurs-searching-consistency-branham-18583864.php\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">coach Gregg Popovich told Orsborn<\/a>. <em>\u201cIt\u2019s a tough role; it\u2019s the most difficult on the court, really, in some ways. So, he\u2019s been very successful in taking steps each time to understand how he can help the team, with being aggressive, decision-making, all those sorts of things. He\u2019s dealing with all that, been doing well.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Branham has started 18 of the past 19 games, though he is only averaging\u00a0 23.6 minutes a game over this stretch. He averages 9.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.5 turnovers while compiling a shooting slash line of .438\/.333\/.917 in these contests.<\/p>\n<p>Branham&#8217;s biggest issue is on the defensive end. Branham is not quick enough to guard point guards, and while he wasn&#8217;t great a season ago when playing on the wing, he was much better than this year. This is particularly true on the perimeter. Opponents shoot 57.6% from the field and 50% from the 3-point line when he is the primary defender. Last season, opponents made over 51% of their field goal attempts against him but only 35% of their 3-pointers.<\/p>\n<h3>How The Spurs Could Replace Branham<\/h3>\n<p>Branham is considered day-to-day, though that may change as their Thursday game against Milwaukee gets closer. However, it would be a shock if\u00a0 Branham didn&#8217;t miss at least a game.\u00a0 Even before Branham suffered the injury, San Antonio was already shorthanded. Backup center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bassech01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Charles Bassey<\/strong><\/a> is out for the season, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/colliza01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Zach Collins<\/strong><\/a> is slated to miss 2-to-4 weeks with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We miss Malaki, and we miss Zach, but everybody&#8217;s got somebody that&#8217;s out, so that&#8217;s not a big deal,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressnews.com\/sports\/spurs\/article\/injuries-continue-mount-spurs-18587089.php\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Popovich said<\/a>. &#8220;But for us it is because they&#8217;re such a young team and need all their bodies. But I&#8217;m pleased with their effort. They just have to keep the attitude up.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If Branham misses time with the injury, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jonestr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Tre Jones<\/strong> <\/a>will likely move into the starting lineup. Jones is one of the top backup point guards in the league. However, Jones started 65 of 68 games he appeared in and set career-highs in nearly every category. This included points per game (12.9) and assists (6.6). The biggest knock on Jones is his size and shooting.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/weslebl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong> Blake Wesley<\/strong><\/a>, who set several season-highs last night, may also see an uptick in minutes. Wesley scored 10 points on 5 of 8 shooting and came up with two steals in a season-high 21 minutes.<\/p>\n<h3>Gary Payton II Out For Several Weeks<\/h3>\n<p>Golden State Warriors reserve guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paytoga02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Gary Payton II<\/strong><\/a> will be sidelined for several weeks after straining his left hamstring, per The Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Warriors G\/F Gary Payton II will miss several weeks due to a left hamstring strain, sources tell <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stadium?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Stadium<\/a>. Tough blow for Golden State and Payton, who just returned over the weekend after missing one month with calf injury. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KsRpbtgfvA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/KsRpbtgfvA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1742654448059679004?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In just his second game back from a right calf strain, Payton exited Golden State&#8217;s victory over Orlando in the third quarter with a strained left hamstring.<\/p>\n<p>The injury occurred while Payton pressed Magic guard <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/anthoco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cole Anthony<\/a> <\/strong>in the backcourt.\u00a0 It appears that Payton saw a ball screen set by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/banchpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong> Paolo Banchero<\/strong><\/a> and tried to avoid it. But he stumbled and fell awkwardly to the ground.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Gary Payton II went to the locker room after getting shaken up on this play <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Rkaji9hYeL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Rkaji9hYeL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSWarriors\/status\/1742408933753630825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Prior to this setback, Payton was sidelined for 13 games from Nov. 30 through Dec. 30 and has appeared in just 16 games this season.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI<em> feel bad for him more than anything. I feel bad for us, too, but mainly for him,\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/39233168\/warriors-gary-payton-ii-miss-more-hamstring-strain\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/39233168\/warriors-gary-payton-ii-miss-more-hamstring-strain\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Warriors coach Steve Kerr said, per Andrews<\/a>.\u00a0<em>\u201cHe makes such a big impact for us. So, fingers crossed that he\u2019s not out for too long.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While Payton doesn&#8217;t provide much offense for the Warriors, he is arguably their best perimeter defender and a crucial part of their wing rotation. He is also a strong rebounder, takes high-percentage shots, and is an excellent finisher around the rim.<\/p>\n<p>Golden State has a +5.3 net rating in Payton\u2019s 261 minutes this season, compared to a -0.5 mark in the 1,338 minutes he hasn\u2019t played.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHe\u2019s such a big part of our team,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Warriors guard\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-01-03_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Paul<\/a><\/strong> told Andrews. <em>\u201cPeople may not realize it, but his energy is consistent every day \u2014 every practice, every game. Him coming back has been huge for us. So I hope whatever it is isn\u2019t going to take a long time. I think for him, it\u2019s going to be about getting as healthy as possible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/12\/30\/nba-rumors-knicks-raptors-trade-kyrie-irving-goran-dragic-retirement-plan\/\" target=\"_self\">Golden State<\/a> has a +5.3 net rating in Payton\u2019s 261 minutes this season, compared to a -0.5 mark in the 1,338 minutes he hasn\u2019t played.<\/p>\n<p>With Payton sidelined again, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wiggian01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Andrew Wiggins<\/strong><\/a> probably will see a slight uptick in minutes from the 21 he played against the Magic. But it also means that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moodymo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Moses Moody<\/a><\/strong>, who hasn&#8217;t played since Payton returned, will get a few regular minutes with the second unit again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malaki Branham suffered an ankle injury last night in the first quarter of the San Antonio Spurs&#8217; 106-98 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Branham did not return to the contest, finishing with two points on 1 of 5 shooting. He also contributed one rebound and an assist while committing one turnover in seven and a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":60719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62],"tags":[229,34237,182,204,3773,55,528],"class_list":["post-60676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-chris-paul","tag-gary-payton-jr","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-gregg-popovich","tag-malaki-branham","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-steve-kerr"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}