The Golden State Warriors lost on Wednesday night to the Denver Nuggets which was just their third loss of the season. Golden State is only up 2.5 games on the San Antonio Spurs, but they are 8.5 clear of the third-place Oklahoma City Thunder, so they have some wiggle room in the Western Conference. Due to their great start, the Warriors have been taking this opportunity to rest some of their players with nagging injuries, but Klay Thompson may not be among those that get rest, according to Carl Steward of the San Jose Mercury News.
The Warriors "big three" consists of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Thompson. Recently, Curry sat out a couple of games as he was dealing with a lower leg injury, and the Warriors plan to continue to rest Curry when they have the chance. Green missed his first game of the season on Wednesday night to rest, but he is dealing with nagging leg injuries as well. Green may also rest on Thursday, but that plan has not yet been revealed.
With Curry and Green getting time to rest, you would think that the Warriors would want to do the same with Thompson, but that is not currently in the plans. Interim head coach Luke Walton has been very careful about not overtaxing his players this season, but Thompson seems to be the least of his concerns, as he said, "Klay Thompson is young, and we feel we can play him all the time because he never gets tired."
Thompson did deal with back pain early in the season and also missed two games due to an ankle injury, but besides that he has appeared in 37 of the team's 39 games and has played great. After getting off to a slow start, Thompson has been on a tear, especially recently, and he is averaging 20.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game while making 44 percent of his three-pointers on the season.
The Warriors are clearly aware that regular season wins are not as important as having their guys healthy for the playoffs, so they are being smart about resting some of them. Thompson doesn't appear to be in their rest plans for now, but as the season progresses their plans could change.
