Warriors News: DeMarcus Cousins Drops To G-League, Draymond Green Back Against Timberwolves

The Golden State Warriors are slowly but surely getting back to full strength after a period of injury woes when they were missing more than one key player.

The reigning back-to-back NBA champions have five All-Stars in their line up at the moment, but went without three of them for almost a month. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and DeMarcus Cousins were all sidelined with groin, toe and Achilles injuries respectively.

Curry has since returned and immediately got back into the groove with a 42-point performance during their win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors will get their second injury boost after Steve Kerr confirmed that Green will play a part when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.

The Warriors power forward has missed the last 11 games with a sprained toe and revealed earlier that he was not keen to rush back to action for fear of a setback. He was seen practicing with the team Sunday after which his participation was confirmed.

Kerr admitted they are certain to be much better defensively once Green returns to the team and with his return they will have their four-man core – Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Green - back together.

"He's the best defensive player in the league," Kerr said, as quoted on Rappler. "So I think our (recent) defensive efforts have reflected that, in terms of just not being as efficient, not being able to cover as much ground ... we're just a lot better with him."

The 2017 NBA defensive player of the year also believes the Warriors can go on a winning run after a slight hiccup in the last month that saw them lose eight games and the top spot in the Western Conference. The Warriors play six of their next ten games at home.

"We’re starting to play a little better and we're getting healthy," Green said. "We're (home) most of the rest of the month, so it’s a good time for us to make a run."

Meanwhile, Cousins, who has been on a long-term injury absence, has made good progress over the last couple of weeks and joined the team practice sessions. He is yet to make his debut for the team since joining in the summer, but reports suggest that his first appearance could come after their Christmas game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

DeMarcus is making some strides," Kerr said. "He's looked a lot better to me the last couple of days. The intensity of his workouts -- we didn't do any scrimmage or anything today -- but he took part in every aspect of our practice.”

Kerr revealed Cousins could go down to the G-League with the Santa Cruz Warriors to continue his rehabilitation and, according to Marc J Spears of ESPN, the former New Orleans Pelicans center will take part in his first practice session on Monday.