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With how difficult it was for Stephen Curry in the Houston Rockets series, he couldn't have looked happier to be playing against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Curry was comfortable. He was destroying the Wolves' pick-and-roll drop coverage. That was until disaster struck.
Thirteen minutes in, with 13 points to his name, Curry asked out of the game while holding the back of his left leg. The Warriors quickly ruled him out of the game with a left hamstring strain, which puts his availability for this series in serious jeopardy. Despite not having Curry, the Dubs were able to fend off the T-Wolves 99-88, stealing Game 1.
In his post-game press conference, Draymond Green described the timeline of Curry's injury from his perspective.
“I didn't see what happened. I also didn't see that he grabbed his hamstring; I just saw him limping a bit,” Green said. “We didn't really know what was going on for a while… And then they finally told us that it was a hamstring, which was a little deflating. But we knew he did a great job of building us a comfortable enough lead. And Robin turned into Batman, and what do you call Buddy? Alfred turned into Robin.”
As Green joked, Golden State rallied behind the combined offensive efforts of Jimmy Butler and Buddy Hield. The Batman and Robin duo combined for 44 points, with Hield continuing his hot streak with five 3-pointers.
Conversely, the Warriors held the Timberwolves to below 40% field goal shooting. Minnesota shot a measly 17.2% from beyond the arc, preventing any kind of serious comeback. Kevon Looney had a huge role in neutralizing the Minnesota bigs. He was the Warriors' safety blanket. Whenever the Wolves made a run, Looney was there to get a rebound or rotate on the help defense. He single-handedly kept Rudy Gobert off the boards, forcing Minnesota to play the way the Dubs wanted to play.
Stephen Curry's health in this series
But despite grabbing Game 1 on the road, the concern for the Warriors is Curry's health moving forward. After the game, Steve Kerr told reporters that the team is operating under the assumption that Curry will not be available for Game 2.
“We're definitely game planning for [Curry] to not be available on Thursday. But we don't know yet. With a hamstring, it's hard to imagine he would play Thursday.” Kerr said. He was asked a follow-up about the offensive strategy moving forward without their leading scorer, to which Kerr shook his head. “We have to talk about that. We're going to give the players the day off tomorrow. Nothing. No film. They need a day. These games have been every other day. We're flying all the way across the country. Our guys are tired and they need a rest.”
As Kerr said, with the games in this series scheduled every other game through Game 4, it's possible Curry misses a significant portion of this series. Hamstring injuries aren't like the pelvic contusions the Curry and Butler have dealt with recently. A hamstring is a ligament. That takes time to heal; it's not a pain tolerance injury Curry can gut through.
The Warriors need ‘Playoff Jimmy'
The Warriors will have to survive in this series long enough for Curry to return, and that's the best-case scenario. It's not ideal but in some ways, the Dubs are insured for situations like this. That insurance is named Jimmy Butler, courtesy of the Warriors' blockbuster in-season trade. In the same press conference, Green was confident in Butler's ability to cover for Curry.
“Jimmy's capable of carrying a team. He carried a team to the Finals twice. We won't panic,” Green said. “We'll figure out what that means. We have the best coaching staff in the NBA. We know they'll put us in a good spot. And they'll let us know what our offense will look like if we have to go on without Steph. We got full confidence in the guys on this team. We can make plays, we can make shots, and we know we got a guy who can make that first domino fall.
And in his post-game press conference, Butler himself stated he's up for the task.
“We all want 30 back. That is for sure. But we want him to do what’s best for himself, best for our group in the long haul,” Butler stated. “But until then, we can hold down the fort.”
