Golden State Warriors forward David Lee will miss Saturday’s playoff game against the New Orleans Pelicans with a back injury.
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Lee Will Miss Game 1 Against Pelicans
Friday, April 17
Rusty Simmons of The San Francisco Chronicle noted Friday that Lee will miss Game 1 against the Pelicans with a strained lower back.
Lee’s back bothered him late in the season, and he only appeared in five of the Warriors’ games in April and averaged 13 minutes a night in those contests. On the season, Lee averaged 7.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game and saw his role diminished as the Warriors racked up the league’s best record.
Lee is the highest-paid player on the team this season, but Draymond Green took his spot in the starting lineup early in the year and never looked back.
Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group shared some of the roster fallout for Game 1 from Lee’s injury:
Michael McNamara of ESPN TrueHoop Network guessed what Lee’s injury could mean from the Pelicans’ perspective:
Alexis Ajinca is a 7’2” big man for New Orleans who averaged 4.6 rebounds per game in only 14.1 minutes a night this season. Without Lee down low to lock up the glass, the Pelicans will have more rebounding opportunities on both ends, which is something Ajinca is built to take advantage of given his frame.
Superstar Anthony Davis will probably have something to say about the rebounding situation as well.
Even with Lee ailing, though, it is difficult to envision the Warriors losing Game 1 at home. They were 39-2 on the season in front of their fans and put on a number of dazzling shooting exhibitions in Oracle Arena.
However, Golden State has title aspirations with the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and will need Lee’s veteran leadership and rebounding prowess at some point this postseason against potential foes such as the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs.
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