Cedric Coward Doubtful, Isaiah Stewart Questionable for Grizzlies-Warriors

The Memphis Grizzlies listed Cedric Coward as doubtful for Friday's game at the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, a day after he played 28 minutes in the season opener.

Coward has a left wrist sprain.

Isaiah Stewart is questionable with the left ankle sprain that kept him out of that opener, a move up from the doubtful listing he carried into Wednesday's game.

Memphis is 1-0. Golden State lost 127-105 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, and Friday is its first home game of the season, with tip-off at Chase Center set for 9 p.m. CT.

Against the Utah Jazz, Coward had 7 points on 3-of-6 shooting, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block. He was called for 5 fouls.

Memphis outscored Utah by 23 with him on the floor in a 123-103 win that Ty Jerome capped with a career-high 45 points.

Memphis traded up to the 11th pick of the 2025 draft to select Coward out of Washington State, and he made the All-Rookie First Team last season.

He played 62 games as a rookie and averaged 13.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists while shooting 47.1% from the field.

Jaylen Wells and GG Jackson II each scored 12 points Wednesday. Wells had 4 steals, and Jackson grabbed 8 rebounds in a little under 19 minutes.

Stewart, whom Memphis acquired from the Detroit Pistons on June 24 for three future second-round picks, has yet to play a regular-season game for the Grizzlies.

He sprained the ankle in the first quarter of the Oct. 5 preseason opener against the Atlanta Hawks and played two minutes that night.

The team announced Oct. 9 that it was a moderate sprain and that he would be reevaluated in two weeks.

When reporters watched part of practice Oct. 19, Stewart was doing individual work and attempting hook shots around the rim, according to The Commercial Appeal's Damichael Cole, who reported it the next day.

In that same Commercial Appeal story, Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo said Stewart was exactly where the team expected him to be.

"He's doing well," Iisalo said. "He's progressing right on the timetable. He's exactly where we expected him to be. He's in very good spirits. Very positive."

Stewart averaged 10.0 points and 5.0 rebounds for Detroit last season and blocked 1.6 shots per game in 58 appearances.

In 21 minutes on Wednesday, Zach Edey scored 6 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Quinten Post, the only other center Memphis used, scored 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting and was called for 4 fouls.

Golden State drafted Post 52nd overall in 2024, and he averaged 7.7 points in 67 games for the Warriors last season. He signed a three-year, $30 million offer sheet with Memphis on July 6, and the Warriors did not match it before their deadline the next night.

Jimmy Butler III, Moses Moody, and Kristaps Porziņģis are all out for the Warriors.

Butler tore the ACL in his right knee on Jan. 19 and is recovering from surgery to repair it. The Warriors were 25-19 when he went down and 12-26 the rest of the way.

Moody tore his left patellar tendon on March 23 and also had surgery.

Porziņģis is listed as not with the team. On Wednesday, the Warriors said they did not expect him around the team in the immediate future as he deals with an undisclosed health matter, The Associated Press reported.

He agreed to a two-year, $40 million contract with Golden State in late June.

Brandin Podziemski (bilateral low back soreness) and Charles Bassey (right patellar tendinopathy) are both questionable. Bassey did not practice Monday because of knee tendinitis, and Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that day that he was day-to-day.

Jerome wants Memphis to keep playing the way it did against Utah, when it scored 23 fast-break points to the Jazz's 9.

"Same thing, man," Jerome said. "Play with our identity, play fast, keep it about us, just keep going."

Memphis plays at the Sacramento Kings on Sunday and at Utah on Monday, both at 8 p.m. CT, and finishes the four-game trip in Portland on Thursday.