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Warriors to lose Marreese Speights for rest of Grizzlies series with calf injury

By Kyle Franzoni

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A calf strain will hold center/power forward Marreese Speights out for the remainder of their NBA Playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies.

Marreese Speights may have only averaged 15.88 minutes a game during the regular season and another 7.3 during the NBA Playoffs, but those minutes had been important to the number one seeded Golden State Warriors. Now they’ll need to find a way to fill those minutes as the Warriors look to finish off the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night in Memphis.

According to Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports, Speights is scheduled to miss the remainder of the series after an MRI revealed a moderate strain in his right calf.

The injury occurred in the fourth quarter of the Warriors’ 99-89 loss in Game 3 last Saturday. After playing six minutes and scoring nine points, Speights reported feeling a pop in his calf and immediately helped off the court. Speight sat out games four and five, both Golden State wins, and is expected to remain out through the rest of the week. With games scheduled for Friday and Sunday (if needed), the Warriors will have to find a way to replace his production off the bench.

Appearing in 76 games for Golden State, Speights enjoyed a career year while backing up Andrew Bogut at center. A seven-year veteran, Speights averaged 15.9 minutes per game in 2014-15, contributing 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest. However, his minutes were down dramatically in the postseason, with Speights only seeing the court for an average of 7.3 minutes and contributing four points and 2.3 rebounds a night.

His injury will shorten the Warriors bench, which could potentially lead to some match-up issues with the Grizzlies duo of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. In the short-term, the lack of Speights has increased the playing time for David Lee, but Lee has mustered only 11 points in the last two games, although he did grab seven rebounds in Golden State’s Game 5 win.

That puts a lot of pressure on Andrew Bogut to stay on the floor. Bogut has averaged 24.8 minutes over the last five games for the Warriors. The veteran center hasn’t been much of a factor offensively, averaging just 4.8 points a game during the series. However, Bogut has been big around the glass, contributing 8.8 rebounds and nearly two blocked shots per game against the Grizzlies.

Of course, all of this could be moot if the Warriors finish off the Grizzlies on Friday. Golden State has won each of the last two contests without Marreese Speights in uniform, and a win on Friday night will put the team into the Western Conference finals to face the winner of the Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets.

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