The Golden State Warriors have had a hard fall from grace in 2019-20, but even at the height of their reign of terror, they dealt with their share of murky waters. Take for example the 2018 Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets, as the Dubs lost Andre Iguodala after Game 3.
The then-defending champions were mired without their X-factor, and Kevon Looney can still recall how the Warriors questioned how serious his injury was as he remained isolated during that stretch.
Transcript via Drew Shiller of NBC Sports Bay Area:
“We were all questioning the severity of it. We didn’t really know,” Looney said in a Wednesday interview with 95.7 The Game. “Andre is pretty poker-faced. He kept everything under wraps. We saw him rehabbing every day but we were really focusing in on that series.
“Us being down, we were just trying to come back and win. We were trying to figure out if Andre was gonna be back. But they kind of told us that he was done for Houston and if we make it to the Finals that he would be back hopefully.
Iguodala missed the last four games of that series, which the Rockets used to get ahead and put the Warriors on the brink of elimination. The veteran Swiss Army knife had limited Chris Paul and James Harden to a combined one field goal made in 41 matchups as the primary defender — something difficult to replicate:
“That was tough not having one of our leaders out there on the court — kind of changed all our lineups and all our rotations because he was one of the guys that closed games for us and always came up big,” added Looney. “That was a tough time.”
Iguodala revealed in September 2018 that he’d sustained a spider fracture — an injury that generally heals between 3-5 weeks.
He was able to return in time for the NBA Finals to earn his third title with the Warriors. Much like Klay Thompson has in the past, Iguodala soldiered on in his own way, keeping to himself and focusing on his rehabilitation to get back on the court.
The post Warriors questioned severity of Andre Iguodala’s 2018 WCF injury appeared first on ClutchPoints.
