SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Warriors star Stephen Curry will be sidelined for at least a week with a right quadriceps contusion and strained muscle after getting injured during Golden State’s 104-100 loss to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night.
He had an MRI exam after the game and the Warriors said Thursday that Curry would be reevaluated in a week — meaning he likely will miss at least three games. Golden State's medical staff and coaches typically use a progression of building back up in practice before an injured player returns to game action, so it could be longer before Curry is on the court.
“Nobody wants to get hurt, especially that one,” teammate Jimmy Butler said. “Obviously we go as far as he goes, but we want him to be right so we have the best opportunity to be great. I think we can hold the fort down for a couple of days.”
The 37-year-old Curry, in his 17th NBA season, and Houston's Amen Thompson went down hard under the basket with 3:24 remaining and the game tied at 91 after Thompson’s drive to the hoop, which initially was whistled an offensive foul. Houston challenged and the call was overturned to a block by Curry — who grimaced in pain on the floor. He limped to the locker room with 35.2 seconds left.
“Everybody's got to do just a little bit more, nothing too drastic, everybody plays just a little bit better and collectively you hope that's good enough to win,” Brandin Podziemski said.
Coach Steve Kerr said he could see Curry ailing after the play. The two-time MVP finished with 14 points on 4-for-13 shooting — 2 of 9 on 3-pointers — seven rebounds, five assists and seven of the Warriors’ 16 turnovers that led to 22 Houston points.
“It obviously changes everything, our rotations, how we’re playing, who we’re playing through, so we’ll see,” Kerr said after the game. “When I heard it was a quad I was actually kind of relieved, better than an ankle or a knee, so hopefully he can recover quickly and be OK. But we’ve got to hold down the fort.”
The Warriors' depth might be tested given guard Gary Payton II sprained his left ankle earlier in Wednesday's game.
Butler said “it’s just sad” how the Warriors don’t follow their game plan and do the little things sometimes and challenged everybody to "care more” about the details — especially if they’re without Curry.
Butler said he won't change his approach.
“I don't care about offense, we need to guard somebody,” he said. “We're good to score, but I don't want the offense if we're missing shots to dictate not going and guarding on the defensive side of the ball. I'm going to play the exact same way, but we've just got to guard.”
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