Subscribe
Follow Us
Charlotte, NC- A night that was supposed to be a homecoming showdown for Stephen Curry turned into turmoil and total disaster for the Golden State Warriors. Curry sat out of Saturday's game against the Charlotte Hornets because he didn't feel good minutes before tip-off, leaving Draymond Green alone to attempt to lead the team to a victory.
Coach Steve Kerr talked about how playing without Curry affects the team.
“Our offense is based on Steph, obviously, our pace and everything else. So it took us a while to get our feet on the ground, but once we did, I thought we competed well and did everything necessary to win the game. We fought, we competed together. I thought we defended well. We let (Terry) Rozier off the hook a little bit late with an open three, and then he got hot and made some incredible shots, so give him credit.”
Playing without your superstar will always make it tough to win games. Still, other than scoring a season-low 15 points in the first quarter, the Warriors kept the game close.
“Obviously, it’s tough when you lose one of the best players in the world, but you just have to understand what’s going to continue to make us great,” Damion Lee said after the game. “I think this was a good game for guys to step up and not necessarily say, ‘Do something outside of yourself but for guys to expand their roles, continue to be aggressive, and I feel like Brad (Wanamaker) had a great game. KO (Kelly Oubre Jr.), Wiggs (Andrew Wiggins), and even Draymond (Green) continued to control the pace. Juan (Toscano-Anderson) had a solid game. A lot of things didn’t show up on the stats sheet for us, but I feel like guys understood the more we continue to swing the ball and get guys involved, that gets contagious, and everyone that’s out there on the court becomes a threat.”
The Warriors put themselves in a position to win Saturday night's game against the Hornets, which was a silver lining in the figurative Stephen Curry cloud. When the news of Curry being out hit, most counted the Warriors out. Eric Paschall talked about the challenge:
“We learn when we can, we try to build from it. We just got to continue to keep fighting and know that we got to keep our heads in the game and play the right way and play together, and we’ll come out fine. We’re going to be fine. All the pieces are going to come together.”
The good news for the Warriors is that they get two days off before playing the New York Knicks. Potentially, James Wiseman and Kevon Looney can both make a return, as well as possibly Curry. For now, all we know about Curry's illness is this statement by coach Kerr.
“He was going through his normal warmup routine and just did not feel well at all. He saw the Charlotte team doctor, went out, tried to warm up, but he just wasn’t feeling well. So we made the decision to not play him, so we’ll see how he’s doing tomorrow.”
