The Golden State Warriors, entering the second game of their highly-anticipated first-round matchup with the Houston Rockets, certainly should like their odds.
In the first matchup, they pushed Houston's relatively stagnant offense to even lower depths, holding Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet out of the game almost entirely and earning the victory, 95-85.
Now, however, a major component in that Game 1 victory might miss the second game of the series: a major blow to a Warriors team that needs all the help they can get in this gritty series.
Major Warriors piece listed as questionable for Game 2
Brandin Podziemski, Golden State's starting shooting guard, has been listed as questionable for the second game of the series with an illness. At shootaround this afternoon, Podziemski was seen sitting apart from the rest of the team, leaving behind negative signals for his availability tonight.
Podziemski, in Game 1, scored 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists, serving as the tertiary scorer behind the star duo of Jimmy Butler and Stephen Curry.
As the series moves onward, the Warriors will have an increasing need for their peripheral shooters, including Podziemski, Moses Moody, Buddy Hield and Quinten Post.
Many of these players, through Golden State's play-in matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies and first game of the playoffs, have been absent on the offensive end. While, for Post and Moody, this could be due to a lack of confidence in their shooting abilities given the intensity of this playoff atmosphere, the Warriors need to be able to depend on these players in order to overcome Houston's staunch defense.
In Golden State's last matchup with the Rockets, Curry was held to only three points with Amen Thompson being his primary defender, but Podziemski was able to put up 19. While Curry and Butler had 31 and 25 points in Game 1, respectively, it is not out of the realm of possibility that one of them will be held back from their offensive ceiling at one point in this series.
Therefore, Podziemski's perimeter shooting and recently-blossomed teardrop shot from the mid-range will be vital to the Warriors throughout the course of this seven-game series. In short, having three primary scorers could be too much for the Rockets' defense to handle.
While it is not yet known what the illness is, Podziemski being sidelined, even for one game, is bad news for this Golden State team.