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The Golden State Warriors will be without rising star power forward Draymond Green when they visit Pepsi Center to take on the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday. [ Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball] Interim head coach Luke Walton made it official Wednesday afternoon: Golden State is resting Draymond Green tonight. He will not play vs. #Nuggets — Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) January 13, 2016 For tonight at Denver: Draymond Green (rest) and James Michael McAdoo (sprained toe, left foot) are OUT — GSWStats (@gswstats) January 13, 2016 Walton had suggested after Golden State's Monday win over the Miami Heat that the 25-year-old forward, who leads the Warriors in total minutes, could use a night or two off, according to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle : The Warriors plan to rest their versatile power forward the next two games (Wednesday at Denver and Thursday at home against the Lakers), leaving open only the slight possibility that the vociferous competitor might persuade them otherwise. “Yeah, I look forward to having that conversation with him,” joked interim head coach Luke Walton after Tuesday’s practice, which Green watched in flip flops. Green is averaging a team-high 34.9 minutes per game, and joins Andre Iguodala as the only Warriors to play in each of the team’s first 38 games. He averaged 37 minutes per night when Harrison Barnes missed 16 games from Nov. 28 through Jan. 2. PODCAST: Where will John Calipari coach next?: Grandstanding: A Yahoo Sports podcast Subscribe via iTunes or via RSS feed On top of that, over the past two weeks, Green's been logging those heavy minutes with a dinged-up wheel suffered during the Warriors' Dec. 28 win over the Sacramento Kings: Draymond's ankle. #warriors pic.twitter.com/gKfkoY11EI — Bobby G (@bobbyg27) December 29, 2015 It's fair to say that the ankle ailment hasn't exactly incapacitated Green; he's averaged 17.2 points, 11.8 rebounds, 8.1 assists, 1.6 steals and one block in 34.6 minutes per game over his last nine contests , shooting 52.6 percent from the field and a blistering 52.8 percent from 3-point range, and has logged four triple-doubles in that span. But just because Green's been balling doesn't mean his body's not barking. From Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com : “He’s one of the guys that actually plays heavy minutes,” interim coach Luke Walton conceded Tuesday. “And it kind of started when Harrison went down. He’s playing in the high 30s. Now that we have Harrison back, he’s definitely a guy we can look at giving a little bit of time off to.” [...] And it shows. Green spends 15-20 minutes after every game sitting in the locker room with both legs wrapped in ice bags, usually with at least one foot soaking in a bucket of ice water. Despite the aches and pains, though, Green hasn't wanted to take himself out of the lineup, in part because he's in the midst of a career-best run of form. He was in line for a starting spot in the Western Conference frontcourt for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game as of the last round of voting results , and is on pace to become just the eighth player ever to average more than 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists per game over the course of a season, joining Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, John Havlicek, Grant Hill, Magic Johnson, Fat Lever and Oscar Robertson in one hell of a list. Moreover, Green's such an integral part of the Warriors' defensive work, whether at his more natural power forward position or by doing the heavy-lifting of playing up a spot at center in Golden State's devastating small-ball lineups, that the Warriors have really needed him on the court. According to NBA.com's stat tool , Golden State has held opponents to just 95.3 points per 100 possessions — which would be the NBA's second-best defensive efficiency mark this season, behind only the historically stingy San Antonio Spurs — in Green's 1,328 minutes, and has allowed a whopping 107.9 points-per-100 — which would be worse than the Los Angeles Lakers' dead-last-in-the-league mark — in 516 minutes with Green on the bench. And yet, despite his estimable competitive streak and the Warriors' clear need for both his defensive iron and playmaking versatility, Green decided not to go to war with Walton over this particular call, according to Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group : "They didn't have to do too much convincing because I know I need it," Green said of the rest. "I wanted to fight it, but my body wouldn't let me. "I'm pretty beat up right now." [...] "It's different parts of the ankle," Green said. "I'll leave it at that. "It wasn't much pushback from me because I know how bad it was." While Golden State still profiles as a heavy favorite to knock off the Nuggets and Lakers even without Green in the lineup, the fact that the Warriors have gotten nearly halfway through the season without being able to find spots for rest for their top guns — Walton also "listed Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Stephen Curry as others high on his checklist for rest or limiting of minutes," according to Simmons of the Chronicle — speaks to the unique position in which the Warriors now find themselves. It speaks to the specific challenges a team faces when chasing down a piece of history as remote as the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' 72-10 record. It also speaks to the hellacious pursuit of the top spot in the Western Conference being mounted by the Spurs, who sit just three games behind Golden State at 34-6, own the best point differential in league history through 40 games , have yet to lose at home and have still managed to keep their players' minutes down, with only Kawhi Leonard averaging more than 30 minutes per game thus far. Given all that, you certainly can't blame the Warriors if they wouldn't feel comfortable with the prospect of conceding home-court advantage throughout the Western playoffs this spring. It must be strange to be in the midst of what is, by record, the best start to a season ever, and yet still in a precarious enough position in the standings to feel a sense of urgency to avoid losing ground by resting your top players. Walton and the Warriors have decided that now is the time to start finding opportunities to give his stars some time off, which could very well be the best thing for the health and well-being of Green and his fellow ailing Dubs. Whether it winds up being the best thing for the Warriors' chances of successfully defending their title, though, figures to depend on both how well Draymond's replacements at the four and five spots can step into his shoes over the next two nights, and how well idle San Antonio fares in its next test: a Thursday night heavyweight fight against LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and the surging Cleveland Cavaliers. More NBA coverage: - - - - - - - Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YourManDevine Stay connected with Ball Don't Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL , "Like" BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.
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