Preview: Warriors head to Indiana, will get a look at Pacers’ bigs

The talk around the NBA regarding the Golden State Warriors revolves around Stephen Curry closing in on Ray Allen’s all-time 3PT record. But a subplot for the team is centered on, no pun intended, how they deal with the better centers in the Eastern Conference.

Saturday night they rumbled with the towering big man combo of Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond. Embiid finished with 26 points on 7-of-16 shooting, 9 rebounds, and 4 turnovers. His 11-of-11 free throw shooting offset his relatively rough shooting outing. Drummond added 9 points and 9 rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.

Monday the Dubs will take on Indy’s prized big man tandem, Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner. Sabonis is averaging 18.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, while Turner is averaging 13.7 PPG, 7.4 REB, and 2.7 blocks. Both have been the talks of trade rumors on social media, with some trade machine addicted members of Dub Nation mulling what assets GSW could give up for either of those players.

The Dubs will be without their big man prospect James Wiseman again as he recovers from his torn meniscus. Originally thought to be returning in late November, he probably won’t be back until January. Warriors coach Steve Kerr had this to say about the team’s prized prospect:

“More than anything, I just feel bad for James because I’m dying for him to get out there for his own well-being and improvement and you know, where he is in his young career,” Kerr said. “He’s too young for something like this to happen. So I feel bad for him. But he’s maintained a really good attitude and he comes in everyday and he gets his work in. Whenever he gets out there, he’ll get out there and we’ll assess at that point how we want to use him and how much we want to throw at him.”

This game will definitely reinforce somebody’s argument, either to ship guys out for a Pacer big or to stand pat and patiently wait for Wiseman’s moment to come. But hopefully the Dubs come out of it with a W, and maybe a shiny new record for their hero Curry.

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Golden State Warriors @ Indiana Pacers

December 13th, 2021 | 4:00 PT

Watch: NBC Sports Bay Area, NBA TV | Listen: 95.7 The Game