Andrew Wiggins expected to return to Warriors this week, per sources
Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins has not played since Feb. 13 while
tending to family matter
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MAY 26: Andrew Wiggins #22 of the Golden
State Warriors warms up prior to Game Five of the 2022 NBA Playoffs
Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center
on May 26, 2022 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User
expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this
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By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: April 3, 2023 at 10:03 a.m. | UPDATED: April 3, 2023 at 4:52 p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/04/03/andrew-wiggins-expected-to-return-to-warriors-this-week-per-sources/

DENVER — The Warriors are on the brink of welcoming back a vital piece
from last year’s title team, as they seek a jolt to kickstart a hopeful
playoff run.

Andrew Wiggins, who has been away from the team for nearly seven weeks,
is expected to rejoin the Warriors early this week, league sources
confirmed Monday. ESPN first reported Monday morning on Wiggins’ pending
return.

Wiggins has missed 22 straight games since he stepped away Feb. 14 to
tend to an undisclosed family matter. The Athletic’s Shams Charania
revealed Monday that Wiggins’ father Mitchell has been dealing with a
“serious medical situation.”

Coach Steve Kerr maintained his hope that Wiggins would be back before
the season ended. Steph Curry reiterated last week that the team would
love to have Wiggins back whenever he was ready: “When he walks in the
door, it’ll be when it’s the right time for him.”

Wiggins has been working out daily during his time away, according to
Kerr, who periodically checked in with the All-Star wing. The team will
assess his game-readiness and establish a return-to-play timeline for
Wiggins once he’s back in the Bay.

It’s unclear whether Wiggins will play in any of the Warriors’ three
remaining regular-season games, given how many games and practices he
has missed. He’s expected to attend the Warriors’ home final Tuesday
night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Golden State is scheduled to practice Thursday before visiting
Sacramento on Friday night. The Warriors are expected to practice
Saturday in Portland before closing the season Sunday against the Trail
Blazers. All three games carry high stakes as the Western Conference
playoff race remains the tightest it’s been in recent memory.

The Warriors (41-38) squandered an early 15-point lead in a road loss to
the Nuggets on Sunday. That left them at sixth in the Western Conference
standings, a half-game ahead of the play-in tournament. But they are on
unsteady ground as the teams near them in the standings — the Clippers,
Lakers, Pelicans and Timberwolves — own head-to-head tiebreakers over
the defending champs as of Monday. It’s also noteworthy that the
Clippers, Lakers and Pelicans enter the last week of action with the
same number of losses as Golden State.

The Warriors have made it clear they want to avoid the play-in
tournament. If they end up with a top-six seed, they’ll have a week off,
giving Wiggins more time to get reacclimated with his teammates after
the significant layoff.

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Donte DiVincenzo stepped into the starting lineup during Wiggins’
absence as Klay Thompson moved up one spot from shooting guard to small
forward. Golden State, which has gone 12-10 during this stretch without
Wiggins, has voiced support for their teammate as he dealt with the
off-court matter.

“When he comes back, everybody’s energy and spirit level will raise just
because he’s going to have a big smile on his face when he walks into
the door,” DiVincenzo said last month.

Wiggins was arguably the Warriors’ second-best player during the 2022
playoffs, averaging 16.5 points and 7.5 rebounds while taking the top
wing assignment defensively. He was Golden State’s top scorer in Game 5
of the NBA Finals, pouring in 26 points just one game after recording a
career-high 16 rebounds in the tide-turning Game 4 in Boston.

Wiggins’ play earned him a four-year, $109 million extension last October.

The 28-year-old picked up this season where he left off in June and got
off to one of the best starts of his career, averaging 19.1 points and
5.1 rebounds while shooting 51.1% from the field and 45% from deep in
his first 22 games. But his season has been derailed by a series of
hardships and setbacks. Wiggins missed 15 games due to a strained
adductor and subsequent illness. Once healthy, Wiggins was slow to get
back to his early season form.

Wiggins is averaging 17.1 points and five rebounds on the season while
shooting 39.6% from beyond the arc in a career-low 37 games.

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter
Madeline Kenney is the Bay Area News Group's Golden State Warriors beat
reporter for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. A Nebraska native, she
is graduate of Loyola University of Chicago. She holds a Bachelor in
Communication degree, with a major in broadcast journalism and minors in
sports management and marketing, and is a friend of Sister Jean, the
103-year-old nun who became famous during the Ramblers’ 2018 run to the
Final Four, Madeline previously worked for the Chicago Sun-Times
covering everything from sports to crime and politics. When she’s not
working, she enjoys trying new restaurants and exploring the great outdoors.