Who: Warriors (6-3) at Nuggets (5-4)

When: Saturday, November 4 at 6:00 p.m. (PST)

How to Watch: NBCSBA

No Liv, no life??

Hopefully the altitude isn’t too much of a problem for Steph Curry, because he’s going to be carrying a lot of weight tonight now that Shaun Livingston is out (rest). Supposedly, it will be okay, as long as our plethora of playmakers can actually deliver. There has been a lot of talk about how Shaun Livingston isn’t a true point guard, given that he generally plays next to Curry - well, we are going to put that theory to test tonight! It’s time to see if this team really can survive with just Curry as our sole point guard.

Positionless basketball at it’s finest!

Since Curry already plays around 33 minutes per game and is unlikely to play more than a handful beyond that - this could actually end up being a positive as it will force coach Steve Kerr to take the rotation in a different direction than usual. Livingston plays around 16 minutes per game, 6th most on the team so far this season - so it definitely leaves a significant gap in personnel that will have to be covered somewhere. Namely, Patrick McCaw should get more minutes and perhaps we could even be treated to a sighting of our expensive free agent, Nick Young.

Note also that Damien Jones is remaining on the inactive list for this game.

What’s that rule again?

If you’ll recall, the NBA passed an updated rule on rest during this past offseason - but since this is the first instance of our team holding a player out officially for rest I thought it would be helpful to look at the rule again.

The specific provisions actually required a bit of Google archaeology to uncover, but here you go:

• Teams are prohibited from resting healthy players for any high-profile, nationally televised game. Any violation of this provision will constitute conduct prejudicial or detrimental to the NBA and result in a fine of at least $100,000.

• Absent unusual circumstances, a team should not rest multiple healthy players for the same game or rest healthy players when playing on the road.

• In situations when teams decide to rest healthy players, the players should be visible and available to interact with fans.

Now that I look at them with fresh eyes, I can understand why I didn’t exactly recall these vague rules. Apparently, the main kicker will be resting star players on nationally televised games. Although this game doesn’t seem to fit that criteria, the Warriors do seem to be firmly stepping into the grey area by resting a healthy player on the road.

This pattern of taking the occasional night off during busy stretches is something Kerr plans to take with Andre Iguodala:

“We just have a feel for when guys need a break,” Kerr said. “It’s also good to have other guys step in and play.”

“I’d like to find everyone more minutes,” Kerr said. “I’d like to find Looney more minutes because he deserves it. I’m having a tough time getting him on the floor.”Livingston, 32, will take the occasional night off during particularly busy stretches this season. Kerr plans to take the same approach with Andre Iguodala and even some of the Warriors’ starters, though he won’t rest his All-Stars in mass like he did last season at San Antonio.

Let’s be honest though, this rule was never targeted towards a player like Livingston. For now, this will almost certainly slide through without any sort of financial penalty.

And for all the noise people are talking, it’s easy to forget that the Warriors are a half game out of first place.