Warriors center Kevon Looney has been cleared to play Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night with a chest injury.

Looney, who missed Wednesday’s Game 3 loss to the Raptors with a non-displaced fracture of the first costal cartilage, has been told by team trainers that he can’t worsen his injury by playing.

“Kevon’s going to give it a go tonight,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “So further evaluation, a second opinion, and then a lot of research and making sure that there’s no long-term risk involved with him playing. And it all checked out, and he’s dying to play. So, we’ll give him a shot and we’ll see what he’s got.”

This is quite the turnaround, given that the Warriors had initially ruled Looney out for the rest of the Finals. He was officially cleared pregame Friday.

“The guy’s just tough,” Kerr said of Looney. “He’s tough, and he wants to play. The injury is in an area where it allows him to move well enough to give it a shot to play.”

Looney has been the Warriors’ most dependable center this season. His regular-season averages of 6.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game, as well as his 62.5% clip from the field, were career bests. According to NBA.com, the Warriors have outscored postseason opponents by a team-best 12.4 net rating with Looney on the floor. That number dropped to minus-2.0 without him.

Without Looney in Game 3, the Warriors started center DeMarcus Cousins, who was playing just his third game back from a quad injury that sidelined him six-plus weeks. Cousins missed six of his seven shots, committed three turnovers and posted a plus-minus of minus-12.

His 19 minutes were nine fewer than he logged in Game 2. With Cousins struggling, Andrew Bogut, who totaled just two minutes through Games 1 and 2, posted six points, seven rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes.

In addition to Looney, guard Klay Thompson (strained left hamstring) is expected to return Friday.

Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @Con_Chron