SAN FRANCISCO — All Steph Curry has ever wanted, he has said repeatedly, is to play meaningful basketball. Thefinal four weeksof the Warriors’ regular season look to be anything but.
So why bother involving Curry, at all?
“Based on where they are in the standings, all their other injuries, I just don’t think it makes a lot of sense to push him back out there,” said Dr. Nirav Pandya, an orthopedic surgeon at UC San Francisco who specializes in sports. “Particularly if he hasn’t even practiced yet.”
Curry, soon to be 38, will miss his 12th consecutive game Thursday whenthe Warriors(31-30) visit the Rockets to begin a three-game road trip. Inflammation in his right knee, commonly known as runner’s knee, has kept the Golden State superstar sidelined since the end of January.
The Warriors have gone4-7 during Curry’s absence— 8-14 in all 22 games he has missed this season — and seen their position in the NBA playoff picture crystalize.
They’ve hardly budged fromthe No. 8 spot in the Western Conference, even before they lost Jimmy Butler for the season to an ACL injury and Curry for the past 1.5 months. It would be a difficult taskto catch the Lakers, the last team on the right side of the play-in bubble that thoroughly dismantled an undermanned Golden State squad last weekend, if Curry were at full strength.
“We’re just wiped out right now, injury-wise,” coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday on the “Tom Tolbert Show.” Add rotation regulars Moses Moody (wrist) and Will Richard (ankle) to an injury report that already included Curry, Butler and Kristaps Porzingis.
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That is on the good nights, when Al Horford and De’Anthony Melton don’t have to rest on a back-to-back, and Draymond Green’s back doesn’t flare up.
The upside is that there’s only so far the Warriors can fall.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
