Stephen Curry update: ‘Hard to imagine’ Warriors star will be ready for Game 2
Stephen Curry is considered day-to-day after exiting the Warriors’ playoff game in the first half Tuesday night, but coach Steve Kerr said it was “hard to imagine” the Warriors will have him for Game 2 on Thursday.
Curry was diagnosed with a left hamstring strain and will undergo an MRI on Wednesday, Kerr said after Golden State pulled out a 99-88 win on the road to begin their Western Conference semifinals series against the Minnesota Timberwolves despite Curry leaving midway through the second quarter and not returning.
“Obviously he’s crushed, but the guys picked him up and played a great game,” Kerr said.
Curry grabbed at his left hamstring after an offensive sequence in the second quarter, motioned to the bench and left the game with 8:19 to go before halftime.
The typical recovery time for hamstring strains range from days to weeks depending on the severity. While that will be only be revealed with the results of the MRI, Kerr acknowledged the long odds of Curry being ready to go just 48 hours later.
“We’re definitely game planning for him not be available on Thursday, but we don’t know yet,” Kerr said. “But with a hamstring, it’s hard to imagine that he would play Thursday.”
Curry sank a step-back 3-pointer in front of Nikeil Alexander-Walker with 9:22 to go in the second quarter, but he began rubbing his left leg on the following defensive possession. That didn’t stop him from getting a step on Alexander-Walker and draining a floater in the lane on the next trip down the court.
But at that point, Curry signaled to the bench. He came out after finding Draymond Green for an open 3 to put them up 30-20. He limped back to the huddle, then to the locker room and didn’t reappear. Holding a 43-31 lead at halftime, the team walked into the locker room to find Curry sitting with an ice pack on his hamstring.
“He was a little deflated,” Green said. “He tried not to show it.”
It took about five minutes of gametime for the Warriors to announce Curry’s diagnosis, and his teammates waited anxiously to hear for themselves. While they had seen Curry leave the game and head to the locker room, they weren’t exactly sure why.
“I didn’t see what happened. I also didn’t see he had grabbed his hamstring,” Green said. “I just saw him limping a bit. So I walked over to him, kind in passing, he was walking toward the locker room, and I said, ‘You good?’ and he said, ‘I’ll be back.’”
Curry, 37, has battled multiple health issues this season, including a banged-up right thumb that he continues to bandage.
“Every time he goes in the back, you hold your breath,” said Gary Payton II, who returned from illness and took Curry’s spot on the floor to start the second half, eventually logging 26 minutes.
“We didn’t really know what was going on for a while,” Green said. “Several minutes. Gametime minutes. We didn’t know for a long time. Then they finally told us it was a hamstring. A little deflating. But we knew he had done a great job of helping us build a comfortable enough lead. Robin turned into Batman, Alfred turned into Robin.”
Curry racked up 13 points before leaving the game, and Golden State’s supporting cast stepped up in his absence. The Warriors led by 10 when he left the game, extended the lead as wide as 23 points and didn’t let Minnesota get any closer than nine.
“He’s gotten us out of so many jams this season,” Payton said. “So for us to have his back for this one game — hopefully it’s one game — guys just stepped up and made plays.”
Buddy Hield scored 24 on 5-of-8 from 3-point distance, Jimmy Butler filled the stat sheet with 20 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, and Green drained four first-half 3-pointers on his way to 18 in the scoring column to go with eight rebounds and six assists.
The Warriors cycled through 12 players, even giving extended run to Pat Spencer, the former college lacrosse star who ended up logging 10 minutes alongside many of Golden State’s starters. Kerr said Spencer “will definitely get more time” if Curry is unavailable going forward.
“That was an adjustment with Steph’s injury,” he said. “We were completely winging it in the second half.”
Curry missed 12 games at various points of the regular season, and the Warriors actually fared OK, winning seven of them. Of course, Curry was forced to miss time during the 2016 and 2018 postseasons, and those teams turned out just fine.
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The Warriors haven’t had a day where they haven’t played a game or traveled between cities since April 25, and Kerr said he planned to give his players Wednesday off in Minneapolis while the coaching staff schemed up a Steph-less offensive attack for Game 2.
At the center of it should be Butler, who has dealt with his own health troubles but also shown what “Playoff Jimmy” is capable of, scoring at least 20 in five of the six full games he has played in this postseason.
“We’re gonna need all hands on deck if 30’s not ready to go,” Butler said.
