He’s back!
The Golden State Warriors are embarking on a vital closing stretch of the season, and they’re going to have a full squad just in time. After a lengthy absence, the team’s prize acquisition last offseason, 12-time All-Star point guard Chris Paul, will return from injury on Tuesday when the Dubs visit the Washington Wizards.
Warriors guard Chris Paul – out since Jan. 5 due to fractured hand – is listed as available to return Tuesday vs. Wizards.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 26, 2024
Paul has missed 21 consecutive games after fracturing his left hand in a January 5 game against the Detroit Pistons. The injury required surgery, but thankfully it was minor enough that CP3 is able to not just return this year, but for a large portion of the season.
He joins the Warriors right as they’re beginning to put the pieces together. Despite blowing another double-digit lead (hey, it wasn’t the fourth quarter this time!) in a loss to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, the Warriors have won 10 of their last 13 games, and in that time span have a garbage time-adjusted net rating of +7.4, which is eighth-best in the league during that time (and would be fourth-best in the league over the course of the season).
More importantly, the Warriors starting lineup, which looks completely different than at the start of the season — Steph Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, and Draymond Green — has started to click. When Paul was healthy, the team’s starting lineup (with Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney in place of Podziemski and Kuminga) was one of the worst in the NBA, and the team was kept afloat by a great bench … led by Paul.
Now the script has flipped. The starters have excelled, but the bench, missing the steady hand of CP3, has wavered.
Hopefully no more. Paul will stabilize the unit, which will now have two future Hall of Famers with Thompson moving — and thriving — in his new role. Steve Kerr has already asserted that Paul will play every meaningful minute that Curry is on the bench for (and presumably a good number of shared minutes, too), and you can’t overstate just how important that will be for the team.
Plus, Paul gets a mini revenge game! CP3 spent all of four days this offseason as a member of the Wizards, after they traded Bradley Beal to the Phoenix Suns for Paul … only to then flip Paul to the Warriors for Jordan Poole.
Watch out, NBA. The Warriors are clicking, they’re healthy, and their schedule is pretty darn easy going forward … starting with Tuesday’s game against a nine-win Wizards squad.