Steph Curry expected to miss one week with hamstring injury
On Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors went into the Target Center and blew out the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of their Western Conference Semifinals series. The final score ended up being 99-88, but the Warriors led by as many as 23 and the Wolves made a fake run late in the fourth to make the score appear closer than the game actually was. Regardless, Golden State did what it needed to do, winning one of the first two road games to steal home-court advantage. Unfortunately, that Warriors victory will be overshadowed by the bad news that came out of the game: Stephen Curry suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain.
ESPN’s Shams Charania tweeted out the news Wednesday morning, mentioning that Curry will miss Game 2. He then followed that tweet up with another that said Golden State is expecting to be without Curry for a week. Right after, Jeff Stotts, a highly-regarded injury analyst, noted that if Curry misses the average amount of time that players miss with Grade 1 hamstring strains, he might not be back until Game 6 or 7.
The forecast for this series has now been changed dramatically. Before Game 1 tipped, Minnesota was a -180 favorite to win the series at DraftKings Sportsbook. After the Game 1 loss, the team dropped to +110 at one point. However, when the Curry updates started trickling out last night, that number started to move closer to -140. Now, DraftKings Sportsbook has Minnesota at -185 despite the fact that the team is down a game. And FanDuel Sportsbook has the Timberwolves at -210.
For as good as the Warriors looked in Game 1, winning without Curry is going to be the ultimate challenge. The 37-year-old is averaging 22.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.0 steals per game in the postseason, and he’s really the only consistent source of firepower that this Golden State team has. The Warriors have undoubtedly built an elite defense since acquiring Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat, but that will mean very little without Curry. His on-ball scoring, his overall shooting gravity and his ability to create for others makes him the Sun of Golden State’s solar system. Without him, this already-mediocre offense could potentially look miserable — especially against a Minnesota team that was fifth in the NBA in Dunks & Threes’ adjusted defensive rating (110.5) during the regular season.
The Warriors will now be hoping to simply win one of the next three games just to have a chance when Curry returns to action. Obviously, with Butler in the fold, you can’t rule anything out. We have seen Butler do some special things in the playoffs before, and he did them with similarly questionable supporting casts. But Butler hasn’t quite looked like the same player since taking a hard spill in Game 2 of the series against the Houston Rockets last round. So, it’ll be harder for him to summon one of those Herculean efforts again.
This series now looks like it’s heavily pointing Minnesota’s way, which is a stunning development after an embarrassing Game 1 performance.
UPDATE: At 10:40 am PST, the Warriors confirmed Charania’s report. The team issued a press release stating Curry will be re-evaluated in one week. That effectively rules Curry out for Games 2, 3 and 4.
