Who, exactly, are Warriors without Curry?
As other stars return, they’ll have to figure it out before playoffs
One day after his team lurched into its latest stretch of Stephen Curry-less basketball with a resounding thud, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr calmly and rationally made his case.
Yes, he insisted, the Warriors can win without Curry. Just look at the 2016 playoffs, when they went 4-2 against Houston and Portland in games Curry did not start because of a knee injury. And that preceded Kevin Durant’s arrival.
Just don’t look at Sunday’s listless loss to Utah — because Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson also did not play.
“We’re perfectly capable of winning, of beating anybody, without Steph,” Kerr said Monday. “Our guys know that. It would be hard to beat anybody without Steph, KD, Klay and
Draymond. I’d have to coach a lot better.
“But we’re very confident we’re going to get everybody back soon … and then we’ll be able to put something together.”
Curry will miss the final nine games of the regular season, and probably the first round of the playoffs, because of a sprained MCL in his left knee. The Warriors hope Green (flu) returns Tuesday night and Durant (sore ribs) comes back Thursday night, with Thompson (fractured right thumb) following soon thereafter.
Even when the other AllStars return, the question remains: What kind of team are the Warriors without Curry, a two-time league MVP?
They’re 41-10 this season when Curry starts and 13-9 when he sits. That stat made the rounds this past weekend — to Kerr’s consternation, because the Warriors also were missing other members of their core four for several of those 22 games.
A closer look reveals the Warriors are 6-4 without Curry but with Durant, Green and Thompson all starting; 5-2 with Curry and one other All-Star out; and 2-3 when Curry and at least two other All-Stars are sidelined.
Kerr also can point to December, when the Warriors went 9-2 while Curry recovered from a sprained ankle. Durant and Thompson played in all 11 games, and Green started seven.
“The best gauge of us playing without Steph is when we have everybody else, because then we have defined roles,” Kerr said. “And we know we’re going to play through KD a little bit more, and we know we’re going to have Draymond protecting the rim, and Klay will be out there posing a threat. …
“As long as we have everybody else, we have a pretty good idea what we need to do — defend like crazy, take care of the ball and execute on offense. It’s a little different: a slower pace, a little more deliberate, and a little more half-court stuff. But we can still be really good, as we showed in December.”
Durant was dominant during those 11 games in December, averaging 28.8 points. The offense flowed through him, allowing Durant to display his versatility: launching threepoint shots, slashing to the rim, setting up teammates.
Still, the numbers this season show how differently the Warriors play without Curry. They score 14 fewer points per game (118.7 with him, 104.5 without), collect four fewer assists (30.9 to 26.9) and shoot far less efficiently from three-point land (their percentage drops from 40.8 to 34.9).
They need to figure out a way to compensate, because Curry will not ride to the rescue anytime soon.
“I don’t feel like I have to score 30 every night, like Steph does, but everybody has to be more assertive to make up for that,” said Quinn Cook, the starting point guard in Curry’s absence. “It’s just about guys staying aggressive.”
If Green returns Tuesday night against Indiana, that will help the Warriors share the ball on offense and crank up their defense. If Durant joins him Thursday night against Milwaukee, they will have an elite scorer back in the fold.
And eventually, when Thompson resurfaces, the Warriors almost will be whole again — except for that Curry guy.