Grade 1 sprain means no surgery, but recovery times vary.
The Warriors received probably the best news possible Monday when an MRI exam revealed that guard Stephen Curry has a sprained ligament in his right knee and will miss at least two weeks of the NBA playoffs.
“Relatively good news,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said. “Mechanically, the knee is intact, so that’s good. We’re going to re-evaluate it in two weeks, but hopefully, we’ll know a little more after the first week. We’ll see how his body responds to rest and treatment. There is nothing surgical needed.”
The grade 1 medial collateral ligament sprain was sustained Sunday on the last play of the first half of the Warriors’ Western Conference playoff game in Houston, when Curry slipped on a wet
spot on the court and fell awkwardly. Last season’s MVP immediately grabbed his right knee.
Myers said he was with Curry for the MRI exam and “he was pleased at the outcome, and is focused on getting back as soon as he can.”
Curry attempted to return to the game Sunday in the third quarter, but he and team officials decided he should not play and he was seen crying on the sideline.
The injury timetable means Curry will miss the rest of the first-round series and likely the first two to four games of a second-round series against the Clippers or Blazers (Los Angeles led 2-1 heading into Monday night’s Game 4 in Portland) if the Warriors advance.
“We took an educated guess, because it’s unclear if a player is ready in two weeks or three,” Myers said. “Might be after two weeks, might be before. At this point, it’s just a guess . ... If it’s not two weeks, don’t go crazy.”
Myers is confident the rest of the team will do what’s necessary in Curry’s absence. So is forward Harrison Barnes.
“You feel good that nothing was torn,” Barnes told the 95.7 FM, “but obviously, he is going to be missed. We’ll pull together and hold the fort without him ...
“It was scary when it happened. Was it going to end his season? It was tough to see ... the leader of your team crying and not being able to play.”
The Warriors won 121-94 Sunday to take a 3-1 lead in the first-round, best-of-seven playoff series. Game 5 is Wednesday night at Oracle Arena.
“It was one of those stretches where every player pitched in and we had such a great rhythm,” Barnes said. “The MVP went out, and we got back to playing our style of basketball … We’re going to carry that momentum to Wednesday night as well.”
According to medical information on UCSF’s website, the MCL is a 4- to 6-inch band that goes along the inside of the knee from the femur to the tibia. Its “primary function is to prevent the leg from over-extending inward” — which is what happened to Curry when he slipped and his right foot went out while his knee bent inward.
The website also says a grade 1 sprain is the least serious of three possible assessments and is associated with “some tenderness and minor pain at the point of the injury.”
A grade 2 sprain involves “looseness in the knee” and major pain. The grade 3 sprain involves a tear of the MCL, along with a likely tear of the anterior cruciate ligament, too.
Curry played the first half of Game 4 after sitting out Games 2 and 3 with a sprained ankle suffered in Game 1 of the series.
Shaun Livingston started in place of Curry in Games 2 and 3 and scored 16 points in each. The Warriors lost Game 3.
Curry led the NBA in scoring this season and broke his own NBA record for three-pointers with 402.
With Curry leading the way, the Warriors set a single-season wins record by going 73-9.