OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - The Golden State Warriors will be without centers Andrew Bogut and Jermaine O’Neal when they host the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.
With the All-Star break up next, Warriors coach Mark Jackson said the team wanted to give both big men more time to rest nagging injuries. It will be the fourth straight game Bogut has missed because of a left shoulder injury, while O’Neal will sit out for the second consecutive game with inflammation in his surgically repaired right wrist.
The Warriors (31-21), who beat the two-time defending champion Heat 123-114 in Miami on Jan. 2, won’t play again until a visit to Sacramento on Feb. 19.
Jackson said he hopes both players can rest up and take the break as an opportunity “to get closer to 100 percent so we can take off running in the second half of the season.”
David Lee participated in Tuesday’s practice and is expected to start at center. He missed two games with a sprained left shoulder and strained left hip before returning for Golden State’s 123-80 win over Philadelphia on Monday night.
Versatile reserve Draymond Green will likely start at power forward again.
Bogut, who sat out 50 of 82 regular-season games last year dealing with the effects of left ankle surgery, had not missed a game because of an injury all season until sitting out the last three. That prompted more questions over the center’s status before the win over Philadelphia, leading to a weird back-and-forth between Jackson and Bogut in the media.
Jackson said in his pregame news conference that he wasn’t sure when Bogut injured himself, speculating “it may have been sleeping, and I say that in all seriousness.” Bogut later cleared things up, calling over a couple of reporters in the locker room to say he had bruised a bone in his shoulder, which began nagging him after a win at Utah on Jan. 31.
Bogut also called Jackson’s suggestion that he woke up with the injury “absolutely ridiculous.”
After the game, Jackson opened his news conference by saying his comments were not a dig at Bogut and he was merely trying to explain the center’s injury. Jackson reiterated that Tuesday.
“We dealt with it. It’s over with,” he said. “There’s no issue.”
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