3 Warriors that need to step up in Game 3 with Draymond Green suspended
By Josh Wilson
Warriors that need to step up in Draymond Green’s absence: Andrew Wiggins
If Kerr aims to keep his rotation more or less stocked with the same players, Wiggins is a player who could see some minutes defending Sabonis in place of Green.
Wiggins has seen the third-most minutes (02:13, 13.8 possessions) defending Sabonis. Sabonis went 1-for-1 on those possessions, so there’s not a ton to pull directly from those minutes.
That said, Wiggins is a versatile defender who, at 6-7, is big enough to reasonably cover Sabonis in short stints. He’s a far better option than Payton or DiVincenzo, as previously mentioned. The Warriors would obviously be going small in these minutes, which might be a necessity for Kerr and the team without Green.
Even when Wiggins isn’t guarding Sabonis, he’ll be slid up the defensive scheme to pick up fours when the Warriors are playing bigger. That’ll place him on players like Harrison Barnes. Barnes has taken three shots against Wiggins so far in this series, making one of them.
Perhaps more than anything, though, Wiggins will be relied on as a switch and help defender 1-through-4 to help the Warriors bigs focus their energy solely on Sabonis.
No matter how you slice it, Wiggins and his defensive contributions will become even more important with Green suspended.