Moses Moody #4 of the Golden State Warriors
Getty
Moses Moody #4 of the Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors closed out a six-game road trip in Dallas on Monday night with a 137-131 overtime victory over the Mavericks. It was only their second win of the trip. With 10 games left in the regular season and Portland still 1.5 games ahead in the play-in race, they needed every bit of it.
What they did not need was another injury. Jimmy Butler is already done for the year with a torn ACL. Stephen Curry has missed 20 consecutive games. The Warriors have been running on a skeleton crew for weeks now, leaning on depth players and hoping the reinforcements come back before it is too late.
Then Moses Moody went down in overtime.
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Moses Moody had to be carted off after appearing to suffer a leg injury on this play
Moody Stretchered Off the Court in Dallas
GettyMoses Moody of the Golden State Warriors.
Moody was having the kind of night the Warriors desperately needed from him. He had 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting, knocked down four 3-pointers, and was picking Cooper Flagg‘s pocket in the fourth quarter. It was his first game back after missing 10 straight with a wrist injury.
With 1:13 left in overtime and the Warriors up five, Moody stole the ball from Flagg near midcourt. Open floor. Nothing but a dunk ahead of him.
As he went to plant and elevate, his left knee buckled underneath him. He went down hard and did not get up, clutching his knee under the basket while play continued on the other end.
When the whistle blew, the Warriors bench cleared. Draymond Green walked over and wrapped him in a hug before trainers put Moody in an air brace and wheeled him off on a stretcher to a silent arena. Both benches watched. Players from both teams came over to check on him.
“We don’t know what it is, but it sure looked bad,” Steve Kerr told reporters after the game.
Moody left the building on crutches with a large brace on his left knee, moving very slowly. Per Nick Friedell of The Athletic, he will fly back to the Bay Area with the team and get an MRI on Tuesday. X-rays were taken in Dallas. The results of those were not shared.
Nick Friedell
Warriors say Moody will fly back to the Bay with the team and will get an MRI on Tuesday.
What Moody Has Meant to the Warriors This Season
The timing makes this one particularly hard to absorb. Moody has been putting together the best season of his career. He is averaging career highs in both points (11.9) and rebounds (3.3) across 59 games, shooting a career-best 40.2 percent from three. He entered Monday third on the team in net rating among players with over 200 minutes.
Gary Payton II put it plainly in the locker room after the game. “Moses was keeping us in the game, to be honest,” Payton said. “Moses does all the right things. It sucks to see Moses go down.”
That is the consensus around the team. Moody does everything asked of him, never makes noise about his role, and comes in every night ready to work. Monday was supposed to be his return game. He delivered 23 points and three steals before the knee went.
Kerr reflected on that after the game. “Mo is such a great human being,” Kerr said. “Great teammate. Wonderful guy to coach. Just puts in the work every day and was brilliant tonight, by the way.”
What It Means for Golden State’s Playoff Push
The Warriors sit 34-38 with 10 games remaining. They are in 10th place in the West, fighting to hold their play-in spot. Portland is ahead of them. The margin for error is gone.
Losing Moody on top of Butler and Curry strips the roster of almost every reliable wing option Golden State has. Brandin Podziemski has been the team’s offensive engine in Curry’s absence, and Kristaps Porzingis contributed 22 points in Monday’s win. But the depth behind them is thin. The play-in push just got considerably harder.
Final Word for the Warriors
Moses Moody came back from a wrist injury and gave the Warriors exactly what they needed for the better part of four quarters and overtime. Then a routine breakaway dunk ended with him on a stretcher, clutching his knee, as a silent arena looked on.
The season implications will sort themselves out. Ten games left, a play-in spot to secure, Curry still working his way back. All of that matters. None of it matters as much as what Tuesday’s MRI comes back with for a 23-year-old who does everything right and has been one of the few bright spots on a battered roster all year.
Get well, Mo.