Curry sprains right ankle, to be re-evaluated Tuesday
Golden State Warriors fans can officially exhale.
The Warriors announced Saturday what had been widely reported Friday: Stephen Curry has a sprained right ankle, but an MRI exam revealed no structural damage. Curry will be reevaluated Tuesday, the team said — meaning he'll miss at least two games.
The Warriors hosted the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday at Chase Center and then travel to San Antonio to face them Monday night again.
“It's a good result. The MRI was clear. He's feeling better today,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said before Saturday's game. “All in all I would call it positive. Then we'll just update everything on Tuesday.”
Curry hurt the ankle late in the fourth quarter of Thursday night's loss to the Chicago Bulls. He cut to the basket off the ball, fielded a pass and mis-planted his right foot; he soon limped off the court and into the tunnel, missing the last 3:51 of the game. Curry, who turns 36 next week, leads the Warriors with 26.9 points per game. He missed only three of Golden State's first 62 games, two because of a minor knee injury in November and one to rest in January.
The Warriors are 0-3 in those games.
Dr. Nirav Pandya of UCSF orthopedics told the Chronicle on Friday of Curry's injury, “It looks kind of like your gardenvariety ankle sprain.” A Grade 1 or Grade 2 sprain — “which means there's some partial tearing of the ligaments,” Pandya said — generally calls for a two-week recovery timetable for NBA-caliber athletes.
Pain tolerance could also inform Curry's timeline.
Sans Curry, the Warriors elevated Chris Paul into the starting lineup. Kerr said they'll lean on “certain actions that Chris likes to run” while experimenting with other lineups as well. Case in point: rookie big man Trayce Jackson-Davis starting at center and swingman Andrew Wiggins moving into a reserve role.
Jackson-Davis (6.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 0.9 blocks, 13.3 minutes), with his size and explosiveness, gives Paul a pickand-roll partner who can play above the rim.
“I'm kind of looking at it while Steph is out, what do we have to do to win tonight and we'll worry about the next game then,” Kerr said. “Within that, we'll have a lot of decisions to make, who's going to play off the bench. It's hard to script it because we don't know how the game's going to go.”
Paul in his 19th NBA season averages 9.0 points and 7.1 assists. Wiggins, 29, averages 12.7 points and 4.2 rebounds.
Payton out: Reserve guard Gary Payton II was out Saturday with a general illness.