The Golden State Warriors are trying desperately to stay alive and field a healthy team as the regular season winds down, but just one free throw encapsulates how sideways the season has gone for the injury-riddled squad.
In the first quarter of Wednesday night's contest against the San Antonio Spurs, Malevy Leons shot a free throw with his left hand even though he typically shoots with his right hand because his dominant hand was too injured due to a wrist injury.
Warriors are so injured that players are having to shoot wth non-dominant hand
That's how banged up this Warriors team is right now: they are having to throw guys on the court who cannot even shoot with their dominant hand. Leons had to take a few more free throws later in the game and actually made one left-handed, so perhaps he'll switch over to shooting lefty permanently if he gets used to it.
Leons does deserve credit for even being out there. He was far from fully healthy obviously and the Warriors need all the help they can get right now so it was a gutsy performance for him to play given the circumstances.
The Warriors are so thin and injury depleted that Malevy Leons took a free throw left-handed tonight
— Dalton Johnson (@DaltonJ_Johnson) April 2, 2026
He hurt his wrist two weeks ago and the Warriors badly need any bodies they can get. Impressive toughness by Leons to even be out there pic.twitter.com/pwEayxCmWF
The starting lineup was one to remember last night as it featured Brandin Podziemski, LJ Cryer, Will Richard, Nate Williams and Draymond Green. Podziemski and Green would not have seemed out of place in the starting five at the beginning of the season, but Williams and Cryer would have been especially jarring.
That's just the way things have gone for the Warriors this season though. They've been so banged up and have had to dig so deep into the depth chart. It's a miracle they are still able to win some games and have remained at least somewhat close to the .500 mark, even with all of the injuries and bad luck they've sustained.
From Jimmy Butler tearing his ACL, to Moses Moody's season-ending knee injury, and to Stephen Curry missing over two months with a knee issue, this team just hasn't had any injury luck all year which does make sense considering they're one of the oldest teams in the NBA.
Thankfully, the Warriors at least seem like they will get Curry back before the end of the regular season. It will be exciting to see the 2x MVP back on the court, even if it will be simultaneously frightening as fans hope he doesn't get injured.
Maybe Curry will be inspired by Leons and put up a couple free throws left-handed just to honor his toughness. Knowing Curry, he'd probably sink them.