Warriors All-Star guard Curry sidelined with a left leg injury
SAN FRANCISCO >> Golden State Warriors star guard Stephen Curry is likely to miss multiple weeks with a left leg injury.
The timetable for Curry's return is yet to be determined, but he is expected to be back before the end of the season. With the Warriors' postseason seeding hanging in the balance, the news had coach Steve Kerr feeling optimistic.
“The main thing is he's going to be out for a little bit, we'll re-evaluate him in a few days and the good news is he's going to be back,” Kerr said. “We don't exactly know when, but it's not an injury that's going to keep him out the season. He will be back this season and hopefully sooner rather than later.”
Curry, 34, injured his leg following a collision with Mavericks guard McKinley Wright IV late in the third quarter of the Warriors' win against Dallas on Saturday night. An MRI revealed partial tears to his superior tibiofibular ligaments — a joint that connects the tibia and fibula — and interosseous membrane as well as a bruise to his lower leg.
“I didn't even know those ligaments existed,” Kerr said.
Reports indicate that Curry will at least miss the remaining five games until the All-Star break. It will also likely rule him out of his ninth All-Star appearance for which he was voted in as a starter.
The All-Star break will also give him nine days without games to recover from his injury; the Warriors return to action on Feb. 23 against the Lakers in Los Angeles. The team will have a clearer timeline for Curry's return with second medical opinions.
“To even put an estimate on it would not do justice to anybody,” Kerr said. “We'll re-evaluate in a few days as the injury settles and our training staff thinks they will have a much better feel for what the timeline will be.”
With the worst-case scenario ruled out, spirits around the Warriors team are relatively high.
“Everybody is more on the glass-half-full side,” Kerr said. “When a guy goes down like that and gets an MRI, your biggest fear is that this is going to be a few months and that's it. So even though we were all secretly hoping it would be day-to-day, we knew it could have been more serious than that. So we'll take it.”
Still, this throws a curve into the Warriors' remaining schedule until the break. They are 27-26, slated to play four Western Conference teams over their next five games — including fellow contenders such as the Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trail Blazers, Lakers and Clippers — in hopes of breaking out of the middle of the pack.
The Warriors went 6-5 during Curry's 11-game absence as he rehabbed a partial dislocation in his left shoulder earlier this year. They went 6-6 last and Jordan Poole stepped up big last season when Curry injured his foot and missed the final 12 games of the regular season
The majority of this roster has experienced life without Curry -- they have film to work with as they prepare for the next few weeks without their superstar, starting with Monday's game against the Thunder.
The ever-fluctuating starting lineup that's gone from a three-guard lineup to a traditional lineup featuring Kevon Looney will have a new look, too. They'll have to determine if Poole or Donte DiVincenzo will start at point guard. Poole has traditionally started for an injured Curry or Klay Thompson, but DiVincenzo has been Kerr's go-to ballguard handler when Curry is not on the floor.