Curry Sits, Kawhi Sits: A Four-Game Sunday Built on Who Is Missing

Sunday is a football day, and the NBA knows it — just four games on the schedule, the calm before a Monday when all 30 teams play. But look at the injury report and this quiet little slate gets interesting fast. Stephen Curry is sitting. Draymond Green is sitting. Kawhi Leonard is sitting, again. Paolo Banchero is out. The theme of the day is not who is playing. It is who is not — and which teams have spent the first two weeks of the season proving they can survive it.

Los Angeles Clippers at Golden State Warriors — 5:30 p.m. PT, Chase Center

Start in San Francisco, where the Warriors host the Clippers without the two men who define them. Curry is out for right knee injury management and Green is out for bilateral low back injury management, both resting on the front end of a back-to-back; Anthony Slater reported both are expected back Monday against Phoenix, with Al Horford playing Sunday and resting Monday instead. Golden State is also without Jimmy Butler III, Moses Moody and Kristaps Porzingis, per the league's injury report.

The timing is almost cruel, because Curry has just spent six days reminding everyone what he still is. Field Level Media charted the run: a perfect shooting night in Denver on Monday — 24 points on 8-for-8 from the field, the first 20-point game in NBA history without a miss on that many attempts — then 44 points in a win at Minnesota, then 31 points with eight 3-pointers on Friday as the Warriors erased a 25-point deficit to beat the Lakers 112–95 in their NBA Cup opener. Three straight wins after an 0–3 start, and now the engine gets a scheduled day off at 3–3.

Which means Sunday is a referendum on the kid. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, the No. 11 pick out of Michigan, is second on the Warriors in scoring at 19.8 points per game, leads the team in rebounding at 7.8 per game, and owns the best field-goal percentage of any Warrior playing real minutes, according to Field Level Media. He is also coming off his worst night as a pro — six points, five turnovers and a foul-out against the Lakers. "Try not to wet the bed as bad as I did," Lendeborg joked afterward, per Field Level Media. Against a 1–4 Clippers team missing Bradley Beal, Brandon Ingram, Jordan Miller, Yanic Konan Niederhauser and Max Strus, he will get every chance to answer. Somebody has to score for Golden State. The Warriors are about to find out, in public, whether their rookie is ready to be that somebody.

Toronto Raptors at Los Angeles Lakers — 6 p.m. PT, Los Angeles

The nightcap pairs two teams trying to shake off the same kind of loss. The Lakers led Golden State 40–15 early in the second quarter on Friday — shooting 60.9 percent in the first quarter — and lost by 17. Toronto, meanwhile, got a career-high 41 points from Scottie Barnes on Friday and lost at home to Orlando anyway, 121–114.

Leonard will miss his fourth straight game for the Raptors with swelling in his left knee, and Field Level Media reported he will also sit Monday against the Clippers, his former team. That leaves Barnes carrying the franchise again, two nights after setting career highs with 19 made field goals on 34 attempts. "My mindset going into a game now is just trying to keep trying to be as aggressive as I can, try to help the team as much as I can," Barnes said, according to the Toronto Star. Toronto is 3–2 and starting its first West Coast trip. For the Lakers, 4–2, Ziaire Williams is questionable with foot and heel injury management after missing two games, Walker Kessler is available with a splint on his left finger, and rookie Cameron Carr has been cleared to make his NBA debut. Luka Doncic scored 37 in Friday's collapse; the Lakers' problem was not their star. It was the 22 turnovers, eight of them by Austin Reaves, and everything that happened after the first quarter ended.

Boston Celtics at Orlando Magic — 12:30 p.m. PT, Kia Center

The matinee sends the league's hottest Eastern Conference team into the building of one of its most depleted. Boston has won four straight since its opening-night loss, most recently a 125–111 NBA Cup win over Chicago on Friday behind 30 points off the bench from Payton Pritchard and 26 from Jayson Tatum. Orlando is 2–3 and playing without Paolo Banchero and Jalen Suggs — the Magic beat Toronto on Friday anyway, with Desmond Bane scoring 28 and Franz Wagner adding 26 points and 11 assists, which says plenty about their depth and a little about Toronto's defense. The Celtics list Mitchell Robinson as questionable for rest. If Orlando's patchwork rotation can hang with a Boston team rolling like this, it will be the best win of the Magic's young season. If not, nobody will hold it against them.

Brooklyn Nets at Indiana Pacers — 2 p.m. PT, Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Somebody's afternoon has to improve. Brooklyn is 0–5, the East's last winless team, and was routed 110–94 by Detroit on Friday in its own NBA Cup opener. Indiana is 2–4 and has been playing without Tyrese Haliburton and Obi Toppin; the Pacers list Ivica Zubac as out with an ankle injury for Sunday, with Aaron Nesmith probable and Toppin questionable, according to the league report. The Nets will also be without Mikel Brown Jr. It is not the prettiest game on the board. It might be the most honest one — two teams finding out in real time what their seasons are going to require.

The name hanging over Monday

The biggest injury from Saturday night does not even involve a team playing Sunday. Atlanta's Jalen Johnson left the Hawks' loss in New Orleans with a left ankle injury and did not return, and Jock Landale exited with a left hip injury after one minute. Atlanta is off Sunday and plays at Indiana on Monday, when all 30 teams are in action — and the league then goes dark Tuesday for Election Day. Whether Johnson is available Monday is the first question of the new week. For today, the question is simpler: four games, a pile of stars in street clothes, and a few teams about to show everyone what they actually are without them. If you missed Saturday night, our Halloween roundup has the whole evening.