Horford played both nights of no back-to-back last season, and Friday starts one
Memphis at Chase Center, then Phoenix the next night, with Porzingis away from the team and Bassey held out of the opener by a knee injury. Last season Draymond Green played both nights of eight of Golden State's 16 back-to-backs. Al Horford played both nights of none.
Golden State's first back-to-back of the season starts Friday: Memphis at Chase Center, then Phoenix on the road the next night. It is the front half of four games in six nights, three of them away, and the club goes into it with fewer centers than it had a week ago.
Kristaps Porzingis will not be with the team. "We are not anticipating Kristaps being around the team in the immediate future," the club said in a statement on Wednesday, as quoted by Anthony Slater of ESPN, and Shams Charania of ESPN reported the same day that the Warriors have begun exploring trades for him. Charles Bassey did not play in the opener with a knee injury. ESPN lists him day-to-day; the Associated Press preview of Friday's game, built on Sportradar's injury data, lists him out.
That leaves Draymond Green, who is 36, and Al Horford, who is 40. Graham Ike, on a two-way contract, is behind them.
Wednesday, with two of them#
The Lakers won the opener 127-105 and led by as many as 35. Green played 21 minutes, Horford 17 and Ike 12. Walker Kessler, in his first game for Los Angeles, scored 26 points on 12-of-12 shooting with nine rebounds in 30 minutes. The Lakers scored 66 points in the paint and shot 46 of 81.
Golden State's own trouble was further out: 8 of 36 from three. Horford took three of them and missed all three.
Steve Kerr started Stephen Curry, De'Anthony Melton, Gui Santos, Yaxel Lendeborg and Green, with Brandin Podziemski out with back soreness. Lendeborg, in his first NBA game, led the team with 29 minutes. Curry played 21. Podziemski is listed day-to-day.
What the second night has looked like#
Golden State played 16 back-to-backs last season. Here is who played both nights, by each player's ESPN game log against the club's schedule.
| 2025-26 back-to-backs (16) | Both nights | One night | Neither |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draymond Green | 8 | 7 | 1 |
| Stephen Curry | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| Al Horford | 0 | 12 | 4 |
Kerr said on October 12 that about 20 minutes a night is his limit for Horford, Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area reported. On October 15 he said the club does not play Curry in back-to-backs, Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area reported.
Green is the one who has played both. He did it in three of the first four last season. The one he split was the third, when he sat the second night at Sacramento on November 5.
So the likeliest shape of the weekend is Horford on one night, Green on both, and the other center minutes going to Bassey if his knee allows and to Ike if it does not. Memphis brings Zach Edey, who played 21 minutes in its opener. Phoenix played Khaman Maluach for 17 in its own.
After the weekend#
Golden State is at Denver on Monday and at Minnesota on Wednesday: Nikola Jokic, then Rudy Gobert, who played 33 minutes in Minnesota's opener at Miami. Each of those games comes after a night off, so the second-night rule does not bind. Then the Lakers come to Chase Center on October 30, and Kessler with them.
The fifteen#
The opening-night roster locked with all 15 standard spots filled. Brandon Williams is on it, with $1,400,000 of his $2,625,627 salary guaranteed and the rest due to guarantee on January 10, by Spotrac; Bassey's deal has the same $1,400,000 guarantee and the same date. The three two-way spots belong to LJ Cryer, Malevy Leons and Ike. Golden State is hard-capped at the second apron and sits $347,568 under it, Spotrac's table shows.
Sources: ESPN box score for the October 21 game at the Lakers, for minutes, shooting, paint points and the margin; ESPN's game logs for Green, Curry and Horford in 2025-26 against ESPN's Warriors schedule, for the back-to-back counts (one postponed January game at Minnesota excluded); ESPN's Warriors schedule and its injury list; Anthony Slater, ESPN, October 21, 2026, for the club's statement and Charania's report; the Associated Press preview of the October 23 game; ESPN box scores for Memphis, Phoenix and Minnesota's openers; Dalton Johnson, NBC Sports Bay Area, October 12, 2026, for Kerr on Horford's minutes; Monte Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area, October 15, 2026, for Kerr on Curry; Spotrac's 2026-27 Warriors cap table.
