The Golden State Warriors may have to go the entire second round without Stephen Curry on the court.
Granted, the Warriors still have to move past the pesky Houston Rockets, but it seems like an afterthought in the spotlight of Curry’s injury suffered Sunday, which left him in tears and with a shaky prognosis for the next couple of weeks at best.
Curry sprained his knee Sunday, and upon hearing he couldn’t return, broke into tears, as told by Draymond Green to USA Today‘s Sam Amick:
“He was shook up; he was crying,” the Warriors forward told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s pain. It’s wanting to be out there with your guys. He was quiet, so I said everything to him.
“I just told him, ‘Hold your head up. It’ll be all right. But then get the (expletive) out of here.’ We got you. Get out of here.”
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Devine captured the injury:
From yesterday: Stephen Curry suffers sprained right knee, leaving NBA world waiting on MRI. https://t.co/MB5ehReobR https://t.co/cHdn9mAivD
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) April 25, 2016
Perhaps more damning, though, is the early belief Curry suffered a sprained MCL, which means the Warriors could go the entire second round without him, per Amick:
According to Jeff Stotts, a certified athletic trainer whose web site, InStreetClothes.com, is a popular resource for NBA injury information, the average absence for players who had low grade MCL sprains this season was 15 days (based on 11 cases in all). In other words, assuming the Warriors can finish the job against the Rockets in Game 5 at Oracle Arena on Wednesday, Golden State’s best-case scenario may demand that they survive the second round without Curry.
In other words, the Warriors could have to square off with the Los Angeles Clippers or Portland Trail Blazers without their best player.
For those who didn’t keep up with the regular season, the Clippers didn’t beat the Warriors but came close and look great right now. Portland was one of the lone teams to upset Golden State and likewise looks good enough to pull off an upset should the team advance.
It’s not so much the Warriors potentially being without Curry as it is the terrible matchups. Attempting to defend and counter Chris Paul or Damian Lillard even with Curry on the court is a gigantic task, without it makes things rather murky.
Again, Golden State still has to finish off the Rockets, which shouldn’t be a problem given the 3-1 nature of the series with Curry in and out of the lineup in the first place. And who knows? Maybe Los Angeles and Portland continue to beat the tar out of one another (the Clippers lead 2-1) and the eventual winner enters the next round exhausted, anyway.
But this is the NBA playoffs and the sharks can small blood in the water. Any team going into the second round will do whatever it takes to seize the moment, understanding what an opportunity it is to take on the Warriors sans Curry.
Golden State has to hope the actual prognosis isn’t as bad as the early rumblings. The regular-season record is nice, but the path to a title just got a whole lot more complicated for the Warriors, starting in Round 2.