Golden State Warriors wing Moses Moody suffered a noncontact left knee injury late in Monday night’s 137-131 overtime win in Dallas, needing a stretcher to exit the floor.
Moody stole the ball from Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg with 1:13 left in overtime and went up for what appeared to be a wide-open dunk to punctuate the win, but his left knee buckled as he planted and Moody went sprawling to the floor.null
Play continued for several seconds as Moody remained down under the basket near the Warriors’ bench. After the next whistle, teammates, staff and trainers gathered around Moody to check on him. Arena workers brought a stretcher out and the game was stopped for several minutes.
Draymond Green gave Moody a hug and an encouraging pat before he was wheeled off. Stephen Curry had his head in his hands on the bench in disbelief.
Moody had an X-ray postgame as the medical staff tried to determine the severity of the injury, but it’s believed to be serious.
“We don’t know what it is, but it sure looked bad,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Just hoping for the best.”
“It’s brutal, you know we’ve been waiting to get back healthy,” Green told NBA on ESPN Radio after the game. “Moses is a guy who does everything right … and he changed the game for us tonight.
“Everything started going bad, he picked up his defensive intensity, knocked shots down, he changed the game for us. To see him go out like that [was] bad.”
According to the Warriors, Moody will fly back to the Bay Area with the team and get an MRI on Tuesday.
Moody had just returned from a recent right wrist sprain, missing the previous 10 games. He had been productive against the Mavericks, with 23 points and three steals, bothering Flagg much of the second half.
“Mo is such a great human being,” Kerr said. “Great teammate. Wonderful guy to coach. Just puts in the work every day and was brilliant [Monday night], by the way.”
But then the latest in what has been a wave of devastating injuries struck Moody and the Warriors, overshadowing a needed road win. The Warriors have already lost veteran wing Jimmy Butler to a torn ACL.
Butler injured it on a similarly awkward landing in a home loss to the Miami Heat in early January, needing teammates and eventually a wheelchair to leave the arena.
Curry has missed the past 22 games because of a persistent right knee issue. Al Horford is out because of a calf strain. The Warriors are 34-38, struggling to survive at the bottom of the Western Conference play-in bracket as adversity continues to hit.
Moody is in his fifth season and averaging a career-high 11.9 points, starting in 49 of the 60 games in which he has appeared. He’s in the first season of a three-year, $39 million contract extension he signed prior to the season.
