Gui Santos leaves the Warriors’ loss in Phoenix with left knee soreness, then calls it a tweak that is ‘nothing serious’

Golden State Warriors forward Gui Santos left Saturday night’s 131-122 loss to the Phoenix Suns in the third quarter with what the team called left knee soreness, and he did not come back. Santos played the injury down after the game, which matters for a Warriors rotation that is already missing most of its regulars.

Santos went to the locker room during the third quarter at Mortgage Matchup Center on Saturday, October 24, and the Warriors announced the knee soreness shortly after, as reports and Nick Friedell reported. Speaking to reporters afterward, Santos described it as a tweak and said it was nothing serious. Slater wrote that Santos walked with a slight limp but expected a short absence, if he misses any time at all. Luca Evans of the Bay Area News Group, who also spoke with him, described it as a minor tendon issue in the knee that had flared up in the third quarter, and said Santos might sit one game.

There is no official status yet for Monday. The Warriors have not released an injury report for their next game, and the club has not announced any imaging.

A starter by necessity

Santos only started in Phoenix because Draymond Green was ruled out with soreness in his lower back. Before he left, Santos had 7 points on 1-of-4 shooting, including one three, plus 4-of-8 at the free-throw line, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 23 minutes. A night earlier, in the home loss to Memphis, he came off the bench for 5 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists in just under 20 minutes, and the Warriors outscored the Grizzlies by 14 with him on the floor.

The bigger issue is depth. The official injury report for Saturday listed Stephen Curry out for right knee management, Brandin Podziemski and Al Horford out for lower back management, Green out, Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody still out after surgery, and Kristaps Porzingis away from the team. Charles Bassey was questionable with right patellar tendinopathy. Losing Santos as well would push even more frontcourt minutes onto players such as Georges Niang, who played 23 minutes on Saturday.

Every Golden State status, and the rest of the league’s, is on our NBA injury report page.

What comes next

The Warriors visit the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena on Monday, October 26, at 10 p.m. ET (5 a.m. Tuesday in Cairo). The team’s injury report for that game will show whether Santos, Green and the others are available. Follow the game in our Warriors-Nuggets Game Center, and see how Saturday unfolded in the Warriors-Suns Game Center.