Curry’s injury isn’t as bad as we feared
Warriors must get by without MVP for a while
Did you hear that sigh of relief ? That giant whoosh?
That wasn’t just the Bay Area exhaling at the relatively good news about Stephen Curry’s right knee. It was the entire NBA.
Everyone hopes that Curry can return soon from what an MRI revealed as a grade 1 MCL sprain. The NBA is a better product with Curry playing. He’s not just the best player in the league; he’s also by far the most entertaining. He makes TV ratings go through the roof. Fills the league’s coffers while filling the seats.
Curry will be re-evaluated in two weeks. That likely will be three or four
games into the second-round series. And yes, given the listless look of the Houston Rockets in Game 4 on Sunday, I am assuming that the Warriors will be playing in the second round.
Whether Curry will be able to play in two weeks remains anyone’s guess. But in a bestcase scenario, the Warriors’ path seems at least doable, rather than doomed.
On the bright side
It’s never great news to be without your superstar for at least three weeks of the postseason — which is what it will end up being at a minimum, given Curry’s resting his ankle last week — but it’s a lot better than the alternatives. Better than those way scarier scenarios that have been racing through everyone’s minds ever since Curry hit the slippery Houston court at the end of the first half.
Bonus No. 1: Curry’s sprained right ankle will get a lot longer to heal while he rests and rehabs his knee.
Bonus No. 2: Curry has a lot of time to work on that second MVP speech.
Bonus No. 3 (one that Warriors fans won’t like): The playoffs just got a lot more interesting and tense.
What had been the possibility of a romp to the Finals, a re-coronation of the reigning champions, suddenly is riddled with drama. Every possession will be filled with concern. Every player’s minutes, all substitution patterns, every matchup will be overanalyzed from here on out.
After that breeze of a Warriors regular season, the tension has arrived. In full force.
Tweeting out a message
On Monday just after noon, Curry tweeted out this message: “Thanks 4 all the prayers & messages. Can feel all the positive energy. God is Great! All things considered I’m Gonna be alright! #DubNation.”
A few minutes later, the official news was released by the Warriors.
Can the Warriors survive without Curry?
They can, at least for a while. They have proved that against the Rockets. Depth has been their strong point for the past two seasons, and it will be called upon now. But the task will be difficult.
For a solid year, the future — another deep playoff run — has been foretold. Assumed. Now no one knows what the Warriors’ short-term future holds.
The Warriors are learning how the other side lived last year, when they played teams that had lost key players to injury. It’s brutal, and in the NBA it can devastate a team’s chances.
But the Warriors have a secret weapon that not many other NBA teams have: their chemistry and absolute love for each other.
The Warriors disproved the theory that teams don’t get motivated to play harder when they suffer an emotional blow. I can’t tell you how many times “experts” have derided the idea that players might play harder for a fallen teammate. These are professionals, the thinking goes. They’re going to play hard no matter what.
No one who watched the second half of Sunday’s game will scoff at that premise again.
“Everyone was acting crazy — that was really great to see,” said Harrison Barnes, who noted that even quiet Shaun Livingston let out a yell after a dunk.
The Warriors rallied together in Houston. It may be exhausting to do that every night, but the NBA playoffs are spread out enough that the Warriors can get up for the task in every game.
A listless opponent
They are such a contrast to Houston’s vibe. The Rockets were embarrassing in their lack of resolve and heart in the second half Sunday. A better team would have gone for the jugular, pumped by their home crowd and the opponent’s injured superstar. Instead, the Rockets folded. The embarrassing image of James Harden reclining on the court, apparently sulking, captured Houston’s entire demeanor. The memes that popped up on social media — placing the lounging Harden on a beach, in a hammock, in front of the TV — were well deserved. He looked like a guy who wanted to be anywhere other than where he actually was.
The Warriors are the antiRockets. They want to be together, fighting, until the very end. They should be up to the task of eliminating the Rockets at home on Wednesday night.
Next will likely be the Clippers, a far better team than the Rockets, led by a great point guard in Chris Paul and fully motivated to beat their rivals. The Clippers have lost seven of eight to the Warriors since beating them in Game 7 of the first round two years ago.
Suddenly everything is in doubt. Except one thing, which Curry pointed out in his brief statement after Sunday’s game.
“My team,” he said, “is awesome. The end.”