The Golden State Warriors‘ massive victory on Sunday — a 148-106 rout of the San Antonio Spurs — was dimmed by another Jonathan Kuminga injury.
“Such a bummer,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters of Kuminga’s latest injury. “[He was] just coming back, finding his rhythm, playing well. So, hopefully, it’s nothing too serious.”
The Warriors ruled out Kuminga for the remainder of the game with a right ankle soreness after he fell awkwardly on a strong drive to the basket with 6:69 left in the second quarter. The rising forward missed 32 games this season due to a significant ankle sprain.
Jonathan Kuminga went to the locker room after taking a hard fall in today’s game pic.twitter.com/2wiVMSuqLY
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 30, 2025
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San Francisco Chronicle’s Sam Gordon reported on X that Kuminga said he’s “straight” following the latest setback on his ankle injury. [Gordon] asked him if he thinks he’ll miss time.
“I hope not,” he told the SF Chronicle’s Warriors beat reporter.
Kuminga exited the game after tallying four points and a rebound in seven minutes. He was plus-9 during his brief stint.
Kuminga’s injury could not come at the worst possible time. They are already without Gary Payton II, their best perimeter defender who is out with a thumb injury. Kerr was banking on Kuminga to fill Payton’s defensive void.
The Warriors are in the thick of a fight for a playoff berth while Kuminga is also fighting for his next contract. The 22-year-old former lottery pick will enter restricted free agency this summer after his camp and the Warriors were far apart in the extension talks before the season.
Warriors Aim For Higher Seeding
Second-year guard Brandin Podziemski made a career-high seven 3-pointers en route to a game-high 27 points to lead the Warriors (43-31), who are now only one game back of the Memphis Grizzlies (44-30) for the fifth seed.
The big win pushed the Warriors back inside the top six of the stacked Western Conference. Their next four games will be against teams ahead of them in the standings beginning with a critical matchup on Tuesday against the Grizzlies.
“Good thing for us that the [Los Angeles] Lakers won because we have the tie-breaker at least right now with the Grizzlies and so putting them down a game, [if] they can lose against Boston and that we can beat them, that’ll put us in the [fifth] spot,” Podziemski told reporters after the win. “So, I’m just excited to play against some [of the teams ahead of us]. [It’s] another opportunity [for us to climb in the standings].”
‘Quite a Race’
The Warriors will keenly watch the Monday night showdown between the Grizzlies and the defending champion Boston Celtics.
A Grizzlies loss, as Podziemski said, would pull the Warriors just half a game back for the fifth seed ahead of their Tuesday matchup in Memphis.
“If we can beat Memphis, we get the tie-breaker over them,” Kerr told reporters. “That’s huge [as] we’re right there with them, [Minnesota Timberwolves] and [Los Angeles] Clippers and the Lakers are only a couple of games ahead. We got them after [the Grizzlies game]. So, it’s quite a race going down the stretch and we have a difficult schedule. Our last eight games are pretty tough, so we’re going to have to continue to play well and tonight’s win is a good momentum builder.
The Warriors have the eighth toughest remaining schedule. The Grizzlies have the 12th, the Timberwolves (43-32) have the 28th, the Clippers (42-32) have the 19th and the Lakers (45-29) have the second toughest schedule left, per Tankathon.
