Stephen Curry suffered an injured knee on Friday night versus the Atlanta Hawks. After MRI results came out, it was revealed that Curry had a Grade 2 MCL sprain and will miss between 3 to 6 weeks. He had just returned from an injury and to be set back by another one is devastating.
The news couldn’t come at a worse time as the Golden State Warriors are preparing for the playoffs. Though they have the No. 2 seed already locked up, the major concern for the defending champions is Curry’s health heading into the first-round of the playoffs in particular.
In general, the Warriors are getting banged up one after the other.
For the past few weeks, the Warriors have been dealing with injuries to their core players. Aside from Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green are on the injury list and one has to wonder how healthy they can be come playoff time.
Curry was sidelined with a tweaked right ankle on March 8 and was the first among the four to make a return to the lineup. Thompson went down with a sprained right thumb. Durant suffered a rib fracture injury. Green has been out since March 19 with a pelvic contusion.
With the Houston Rockets taking the lead in the NBA standings, the threat to the Warriors’ title chances is real.
Given the Warriors’ current state, will they get healthy enough to remain the favorites to win another NBA title?
Fake Injuries
Except for Curry’s recent injury, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith isn’t buying the story that injuries are what’s keeping the rest from playing the past few games. Instead, they might be faking injury reports so as to give some rest to their key players. After all, what are the chances that your top four players will be injured at the same time?
The injuries may be coach Steve Kerr’s way of excusing his team’s best players to get much-needed rest during the regular season.
The NBA has been concerned about teams not giving importance to the final games of the regular season and they have given notice to the entire league that they need to shape up for the sake of the fans who have paid good money to see the best players play.
On September 2017, as reported by NBA.com, “the Board of Governors voted to allow Commissioner Adam Silver to fine teams who violate the league's new guidelines about resting players. Teams can't sit healthy players for high-profile, nationally televised games, and fines for violating that can be for at least $100,000.
The rules also say that unless there are unusual circumstances, teams should not rest multiple healthy players for the same game or rest healthy players when playing on the road.”
The Warriors understand the implications of resting their star players unnecessarily and the organization wouldn’t dare violate the league’s new policy. They’re too smart for that.
Staying Healthy
Good health is synonymous with championships and Kerr learned this the hard way two years ago. The organization won’t sacrifice their team’s overall health for the sake of an NBA record anymore.
The defending NBA champions were expected to waltz through the regular season on their way to another championship. Experts had predicted a dynasty for the Warriors who have four All-Stars on their rosters with two former MVPs leading the team. Despite a few injuries during their title runs the past few years, they have relatively been healthy especially as soon as they reached the Western Conference Finals.
The only true injury scare they suffered during the past three years was Curry’s knee issues in the first-round of the 2016 playoffs.
Rather than load up on heavy minutes during the season to their core lineup, Kerr is wise enough to keep his team from overexerting itself for some meaningless games at the end of a long season.
These last few weeks should be all about getting better for the more important matter at hand.
Championship Experience
Champions know how good they are and they don’t worry about which seed they are. Wearing a championship ring has a calming effect on the players knowing that they know what it takes to win. The confidence that the Warriors have from being two-time champs can more than make up for any of their recent spate of injuries as long as they are healthy enough to play.
The Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Minnesota Timberwolves are all dangerous opponents but have little playoff experience and none of them have been to the Finals except for a few players on their rosters.
It’s best for the Warriors to rest key players whenever possible even if they are minor injuries. The first round of the playoffs can be their tune-up game to prepare them for the more arduous climb to the championship.
Most important player
If there’s one player who needs the extra rest it’s Curry. He’s the difference-maker for the Bay Area squad who will need their leader to be at his peak for the postseason run. Curry’s long-range bombs make him a lethal weapon and one that when utilized to the fullest makes the Warriors nearly impossible to stop.
When Curry is on fire with Thompson and Durant waiting on the wings to launch threes when he’s double-teamed, there is no team more difficult to stop.
The Warriors shouldn’t rush his return to the lineup anytime before the playoffs as they need him for the more important games of the year.
“Based on what I've been told, three weeks is a good benchmark to re-evaluate and reassess where I'm at in my progress,” Curry said according to ESPN. “Mentally, for me, [I'm just] staying positive and staying upbeat.
“It was a confusing one, because I didn't know exactly what it was. I felt my MCL before with the thing in Houston, but I didn't feel that same type of pain, so I didn't know what it was…It's kind of funny, I can joke about it now, first thing I heard from the crowd was ‘where are the high tops,' because they thought it was my ankle. But anyway, it felt good to get back to the bench and just understand my knee is OK, stable, and figure out how bad the damage was in that sense and just stay positive through it. I didn't feel like it was a season-ending or anything. I'll be out for a little bit and get back to playing eventually.”
Nagging Injuries
If one or two of the Warriors’ All-Stars should miss a game or two because of nagging injuries, that’s what will pose a real problem. The timing of the injury of these players is crucial as well. If they get injured in the Western Conference Finals, they’ll be vulnerable especially against the Rockets, their likely opponent should they advance that far.
Houston is on a mission to take down Golden State especially after losing in the Western semifinals last year. Among the West’s best, the Rockets are the most dangerous. They have the experience of winning against the Warriors in their head-to-head match-ups this season and will be more ready and confident should they meet in the playoffs.
Better to rest these players now until they’re close to 100 percent rather than risk losing them during their championship run.
The chase for the best regular season record ever in the 2015-16 season essentially took its toll on the Warriors in the playoffs. They were down 3-1 versus the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals that year before they got their act together and staged a furious rally to win the series 4-3. In the Finals, the roles were reversed as they went up 3-1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers until they infamously gave up the series lead to go down in Game 7.
It was the most monumental collapse of any team in league history and the Warriors learned their lesson. Regular season success isn’t as important as postseason success.
They can sacrifice a few games now rather than risk a repeat of their biggest failure.
Conclusion
Regarding Curry’s injury, Kerr had some encouraging words to Warriors fans.
“The good thing is we've been through this,” he said. “We've went through it last year with [Kevin Durant] … It wasn't exactly the same timeline, but it was a similar injury and similar circumstances where we had to play without one of our best players. And we felt that appropriate fear and turned it up and got it going — and then when KD came back, Finals MVP after missing six weeks. So, there's a lot of similarities here, and I think we should feel good about our ability to play through this stuff.”
The Warriors may not be healthy right now but it’s better for them to suffer these injuries now than later during the playoffs. If the injuries continue to bother these players in the postseason, they will be susceptible to the deeper teams in the West.
The key for them is to be in the best shape possible health-wise and to play their best basketball in the postseason. They have shown how capable they are of winning when it matters most the last three years and this year is no exception.
If the Warriors are healthy, even at less than 100 percent capacity, they should still be the favorites to make it to the Finals and to win their third championship in the last four years.
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