Warriors guard Gary Payton will be sidelined for the next few days as he continues to deal with a partial tear of a ligament in his left thumb.
He was ruled out of Friday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans and will be re-evaluated next Thursday. While he rehabs the injury on his left shooting hand, Dr. Seth Sherman of Stanford Medicine explained why the road to recovery could be difficult.
“It’s obviously challenging for shooters when it’s your left thumb, that’s critically important,” Dr. Sherman said to NBC Sports Bay Area. “Of course, you can shift and play different roles and still help a team and protect yourself. Defensively, for sure, but there’s no getting around dribbling a basketball, shooting, and, there’s a difference between a stable partial injury where we can live our lives and do the things that make some of us do day-to-day and being in the NBA and performing at that high level.
“So that might lead to a little variability in the time loss, but nonetheless, I don’t think it changes the ultimate prognosis, meaning, injury that’s proven to be partial, stable, if in fact, that’s what it is, usually is something that can be treated conservatively.”
Payton II has been a key piece of coach Steve Kerr’s rotation that has proven to work as of late. In 58 games this season, he’s averaging 6.6 points, 3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game on 58.5-percent shooting from the field and 33 percent from 3-point range in 14.9 minutes off the bench.
The 32-year-old recently suffered a non-displaced nose fracture in the Warriors’ win over the Charlotte Hornets on March 3 and has played with a mask for the previous nine games he was active before his thumb injury.
Dr. Sherman explained that his potential return will depend on defining the exact injury and when it occurred, noting it could be a positive sign that Payton II played through the injury in Tuesday’s game.
“He was able to complete the game, so that speaks somewhat to the level of severity,” Dr. Sherman said. “I’m sure they did a careful physical exam. X-rays and perhaps an MRI, which helps hone in on the diagnosis. From all accounts, if it’s a quote-on-quote pain tolerance injury, I think that is a reassuring statement.
“That means that it’s not a huge complete and or surgical or unstable injury. So the time loss associated might be less. I think reevaluation in the short term is kind of the plan, non-surgical treatments for now. Splinting, working on range of motion, getting the swelling down, and then, you know, if it truly is partial stable, seeing how he does, with return to performance, in the short term.”
After New Orleans on Friday, the Warriors will visit the San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers to complete a six-game road trip before returning home to face the Denver Nuggets on April 4.
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