Earlier in the season when the Golden State Warriors were going on their ridiculous undefeated run to start the season many people, including LeBron James, called them the healthiest team they have ever seen. That might have been a jinx because since then the Warriors have dealt with a myriad of injuries including a lingering shin issue to star player Stephen Curry. Curry has been playing and Harrison Barnes is finally back now but Leandro Barbosa has been out for a little while now. The hope is that Barbosa can return to the lineup at some point next week, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports.
Barbosa is currently dealing with a shoulder injury that he sustained on Christmas against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Barbosa only played five minutes in that game before being ruled out for the rest of it and has not appeared since. The Warriors have already ruled out the 33 year old guard for Friday night's game against the Blazers but the hope is he can return for one of their four games next week.
Barbosa's minutes have been a little bit inconsistent so far this season but he has been Klay Thompson's backup at the shooting guard position for the most part. Barbosa is currently in his second season in Golden State and he was a big part of the team last year during their championship run. Barbosa's role isn't as big this season as it was last year but he is still averaging 14.2 minutes per game and playing pretty well.
In his 25 games played this season Barbosa is averaging 6.0 points per game while shooting 43 percent from the field and 40 percent from three. While Barbosa has been out third year man Ian Clark has seen his minutes spike and he has played well in that time. Clark averaged 15 points in the first four games Barbosa missed but has had two poor games in a row.
Barbosa will likely get his backup shooting guard role back when he returns but Clark has really shown something lately so it is not a guarantee. At the very least it is a reasonable possibility that Clark eats into Barbosa's minutes and there weren't that many available to him before the injury.
