Just like Inigo Montoya and the Dread Pirate Roberts, Moses Moody is not left-handed, but he’s practicing that way.
Moody sprained his right wrist and injured his shoulder after a collision with Darius Garland in the Warriors’ March 2 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. He knocked the ball
away from Garland, but the dastardly tiny guard wrenched Moody’s shoulder in the subsequent struggle for the ball, perhaps while repeating, “My name is Darius Garland. Your team employed my father. Prepare to miss 5-7 games.”
The Warriors fifth-year wing will miss his fifth straight game Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Some would say his return is inconceivable, but the Dubs hope he can provide much-needed reinforcement during their six-game road trip next week. He’s working out to keep up his fitness and shooting left-handed, which he also did while recovering from hand surgery last summer.
Does his shot look great? No, but this author is still impressed, as he perpetually struggled to make a simple left-handed layup for much of his own basketball career. This author also employed the “stare at the ball while you dribble” technique pioneered by Michael J. Fox in “Teen Wolf” that proved very stoppable during the CYO Oakland diocese playoffs, though this author did win multiple free-throw shooting contests that earned him free frozen yogurt. (R.I.P. Yogurt Clouds)
He’s still wearing a wrist brace, so perhaps a return to play the Boston Celtics on Wednesday or the Detroit Pistons Friday is plausible. The short-handed Warriors could certainly use him, as their hopes of avoiding the 9-10 play-in game are, in the words of Miracle Max, “mostly dead” right now — which does mean slightly alive!
So the Warriors hope their dedicated fifth-year wing can help them storm the castle of their opponents in a poorly-timed nine-day road trip where they won’t have Steph Curry. Friday, they’ll at least have Kristaps Porzingis on the court, playing consecutive games as a Warrior for the first time and trying to prove that trading for an oft-injured seven-footer isn’t a classic blunder on the level of getting into a land war in Asia or a battle of wits with a Sicilian where death is on the line.
R.I.P. Rob Reiner.
