Pat McCaw's Injury Diagnosed as Lumbar Spine Contusion, Released from Hospital

Golden State Warriors guard Patrick McCaw has been diagnosed with a "lumbar spine contusion," according to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area.

The news on McCaw comes after Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reported an MRI "returned structurally sound." 

Charania added that a timetable for McCaw's return to the court is undetermined. McCaw was later released from the hospital, via Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated.

Mark Medina of the Mercury News reported McCaw will be re-examined on Thursday. That timeline means McCaw will miss games against Phoenix, Oklahoma City and Indiana.

Golden State plays New Orleans on Saturday, but Medina noted "it's too early to say" if McCaw will feature in that contest.

McCaw left Saturday's game against the Sacramento Kings after Vince Carter appeared to unintentionally undercut McCaw as he attempted a layup before crashing to the floor on his back, per Chris Haynes of ESPN.com.

Carter, who was visibly distraught after the incident, apologized to the Warriors after the game, calling the play a "freak accident" to reporters.

"You can tell me whatever—it was an accident, whatever," he said, per Haynes. "I just don't like to see it."

"I didn't see a replay," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. "Vince felt horrible. I was out there next to [Carter]."

Kevin Durant and Draymond Green both said they didn't think Carter intentionally injured McCaw.

"I know Vince's spirit and his heart. I don't believe it was intentional at all," Durant noted. "It looked like he was just caught in the middle of the play and wanted to move out of the way, but Pat was coming so fast. It was just an unfortunate play. Nobody in our locker room thinks Vince did that on purpose."

"Vince is not that type of guy. He's never been that type of guy," Green added. "Freak accidents, things happen. A guy jumps and he didn't touch him much, but if you're as high as you can jump, you lose your balance easier. I know that was tough on Vince."

Charania noted that McCaw briefly lost feeling in his legs before being taken to the hospital, and that a CT scan also came up clean on Saturday evening.

The second-year guard has averaged 4.0 points 1.4 assists and 1.4 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game this season, though he's taken on a bigger role in recent games given the injuries to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. 

With McCaw out of action, the team will have to rely even more heavily on players like Quinn Cook, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala and Nick Young alongside Thompson at guard.