Warriors star Stephen Curry scored 26 points in 28 minutes during Sunday’s blowout win at Minnesota and was cautiously optimistic after the game about suiting up for Monday’s rematch with the Wolves (Twitter video link via Warriors on NBCS). However, he played through some pain in his right knee, tweets ESPN’s Anthony Slater, and was ultimately ruled out for the second end of a back-to-back.
Steve Kerr said Curry’s knee injury isn’t serious, according to Nick Friedell of The Athletic (Twitter link), and Golden State’s head coach is hopeful the 37-year-old guard will be active for Wednesday’s contest in Utah.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Star guard Anthony Edwards was downgraded to questionable and then out for Monday’s eventual win over Golden State due to right foot injury management, the Timberwolves announced (via Twitter). According to Chris Hine of The Star Tribune (Twitter link), Edwards went through a pregame warmup and was ruled out shortly thereafter. “It was news to me, honestly,” head coach Chris Finch said after the game (Twitter link via Hine). “He had pain from the foot that’s been troubling him.” When asked if Edwards would be available for both ends of Minnesota’s back-to-back later this week, Finch said he wasn’t sure, Hine adds (via Twitter).
- Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija missed Monday’s loss to Boston, his second straight absence, but he’s expected to return to action on Tuesday at Washington, tweets Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report. Avdija aggravated a back injury last week and interim head coach Tiago Splitter explained the team gave him an extra day of rest on Monday as a precaution.
- Kings guards Zach LaVine (lower back soreness) and Malik Monk (right ankle soreness) are questionable for Tuesday’s contest vs. New York, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link). LaVine was out for Sunday’s loss in Detroit due to the back issue, while Monk played 22 minutes, scoring 19 points in the process.
This article is the perfect argument that reducing the number of games per season would significantly reduce games missed by stars, improving the quality of the product.
But they’ll never do that unless they think they are losing viewers, and the numbers are all up.
Completely disagree. In the almost 70 seasons since the league went to 82 games this has never been an issue until the last decade or so.
Players aren’t giving their bodies enough downtime to recover during the offseason which I would venture is playing a factor in some of these injuries. And players before the last 20 years typically played through injuries and didn’t do this load management nonsense.
It’s mostly because these guys run up and down the court more than they used too bc of the fast pace in all the games
The players are bigger, stronger and faster on average.
The faster pace leads to more possessions, more sprinting, more deceleration, sharper cuts, and more jumping from awkward angles. Players aren’t backing guys down for 10 seconds anymore. They’re going full speed most of the entire time they’re on the court. That constant stop-start stress murders knees, ankles, hips, and hamstrings.
Injury reporting is more honest now. Guys in past eras played hurt and teams hid it. “Sore knee” used to mean partial ligament damage. Minor tears weren’t diagnosed like today. Now everything gets labeled, scanned, and reported. Injuries appear more common even if some of them always existed.
More space means defenders are covering more ground, closing out harder, and recovering faster. That’s extra strain, especially for bigs who now have to move like wings on switches.
I agree it’s a change from historical standards, and all the reasons listed here are good explanations. But they can’t really change any of those factors. With everything more intense, it seems that just a few extra days of rest would make a big difference in games missed.