Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes will be sidelined for a spell with a sprained left ankle.
Barnes, who went down during Friday’s win against Phoenix, will be sidelined at least three games, the Warriors announced Sunday, per EPSN. Tests over the weekend revealed no broken bones, but Barnes will be reevaluated next week.
The 18-0 Warriors will miss Barnes’ athleticism and all-around game as they kick off a grueling two-week road trip Monday.
“Obviously we don’t know, so it’s all speculation right now,” interim head coach Luke Walton said via NBA.com. “But with an ankle sprain, it could be a few weeks, it could be one week. But we’ll wait to hear back from the doctors and we’ll move on if he’s out and we have other guys that will be anxious to step up for us.
"Obviously like we always preach, we’re not going to rush him back because we want to be healthy for later in the season and we don’t want lingering injuries. We’ll have him take his time and when he gets cleared from the doctors we’ll get him right back out there."
Barnes, 23, is Golden State’s third-leading scorer this season at 13.4 points per game. He’s averaging 30.1 minutes per game as a starter while shooting 50 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from distance.
The fourth-year veteran, will be a restricted free agent after this season, as he recently turned down a four-year extension in the neighborhood of $64 million. With the NBA’s salary cap expected to go up this upcoming offseason, Barnes could potentially leverage a five-year maximum in the range of $90 million, thanks to many teams having cap space and a lack of dynamic wing players around the league.