Golden State Warriors: Iguodala doubtful for game 4, what does it mean?

The Golden State Warriors head into game four of the West Conference finals likely without the aid of Andre Iguodala as he nurses a knee injury. How will the team fare without their starting small forward?

The Golden State Warriors, fresh off of a West Conference finals game three that saw them defeat the Houston Rockets in dominating fashion, received some not so great news on Monday morning.

After colliding knees with Rockets’ star guard, James Harden, during game three, Andre Iguodala suffered a left knee contusion. This was initially not thought to be anything that would cause him to miss any time, but that may no longer be the case. Iguodala’s pain in the knee worsened over night, but despite this the X-ray came back clean, thankfully.

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So what is likely a sign of precaution on the team’s part and not as much necessity, Iguodala has officially been listed as questionable for game four of the series, which takes place today in Oakland. Iguodala has started every game of the series thus far, as the team has elected to begin the game with their notorious Hamptons Five lineup on the court.

This will likely not be an option for the team heading into tonight’s game, forcing the team to adjust their rotation accordingly.

Through three games Iguodala is averaging 8.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists, but his presence has been most felt on the defensive side of the court, as usual.

His loss will not be too big of an obstacle for the team to over come, but you never like to be down a valuable wing defender against such an offensively potent team.

The question that now arises is who will replace Iguodala in the starting lineup? The team has several options when it comes to this matter. They could choose to keep the core of the Hamptons five lineup in tact, which means continuing to start Draymond Green at center. Doing this would likely mean starting Nick Young in the spot previously inhabited by Iguodala.

While this is on the table, it is not the most likely lineup we will see. The team will probably elect to go back to a lineup with a true center on the court and move Green back to power forward. If this were to happen one would think Kevon Looney would be the big man to get the starting nod.

Looney has put up a great defensive performance through the first three games of the series, specifically on the perimeter when he has been switched onto one of the Rockets’ guards.

There have been times where the Rockets were able to pick on Looney defensively, but he has held up much better than any of the other bigs on the team when put in a mismatch scenario. This is precisely why it hard to imagine a scenario where Looney does not get awarded the starting spot for game four, assuming Iguodala ends up not playing.

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It will be interesting to see how much time the team spends with a bigger lineup, such as one with Looney on the court, considering they have had such a high level of success going small against their current opponent.

Regardless, the team should be fine in game four, even without Iguodala, due to their versatility in how they are able to play without him.

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