Dubs loving Andrew Wiggins’ activity after long break amid tough G1 loss vs Kings

Amid swallowing a 126-123 Game 1 loss against the surging Sacramento Kings, the Golden State Warriors are looking at the bright side of their situation as Andrew Wiggins finally made an appearance back to action.

“When you go through all the decisions to put a roster together, all of the pieces have to fit,” Stephen Curry said of Wiggins’ return, per ESPN’s Kendra Andrews. “He’s a big part of everything we do. When you go into a season, you want to be as fully healthy as possible because that’s the way all the pieces are meant to fit. We haven’t had it for a very long time and we tried to hold down the fort. Now we have that look back.”

Saturday marks the first time that Wiggins have played competitive basketball since Feb. 13 – missing Golden State’s last 25 games in the regular season.

The star forward notably took a leave of absence due to personal reasons, which was eventually determined as a family matter as he attended urgent appearances on the medical needs of his father, Mitchell Wiggins. He made a return to the Dubs’ camp last Apr. 14, but proceeded to be inactive until the end of regular season as he worked in his conditioning.

“So awesome to have him back,” coach Steve Kerr said. “You know, we’re whole with him out there. Our team makes sense with Wiggs back. I thought he looked really good. The first half was amazing, second half he maybe wore down a little bit, which is to be expected, given he hasn’t played in a game in over two months. He was fantastic.”

Against the Kings, Wiggins was assigned to come off the bench for the first time in his career. Despite that, he remained productive in over 28 minutes of play by having 17 points, albeit inconsistent with that 7-for-16 shooting that includes a rusty 1-for-8 three-point field goal. After tallying 12 points in the first-half, he went on to finish on 2-for-8 showing afterwards, missing a potential game-tying corner trey against Sacramento with 10.3 seconds remaining.

Amid a rough night, the Warriors still lauded Wiggins for braving adversity and being able to contribute as he returned for them in the grinding first-round opener.

“I am so proud of Wiggs,” Klay Thompson said. “To miss three months in NBA basketball and do what he did tonight is so impressive. Barely breaks a sweat.”

With Game 2 against the Kings set on Monday, Wiggins can’t be more happy to continue working his way back to his usual form.

“To be honest, I came back because I felt like my situation had gotten better,” Wiggins said of his return to the team in the playoffs after missing 25-straight regular season matches. “And it worked out perfectly. I didn’t want to miss this moment.”