Superstar guard Stephen Curry underwent an MRI on Wednesday night, which confirmed he has patellofemoral pain syndrome in his right knee and revealed no structural damage, according to the Warriors (Twitter link).
Curry will miss at least five more games, as he will be reevaluated in 10 days, per the team.
The injury update on Curry, who has been sidelined for Golden State’s last five games due to the right knee issue, was first reported by Anthony Slater and Shams Charania of ESPN.
Head coach Steve Kerr said yesterday that Curry was unable to scrimmage on Wednesday as he continues to deal with nagging pain in his right knee. According to Slater and Charania, Curry’s knee has been bothering him after individual workouts.
“It’s just lingering soreness.” Kerr said before Thursday’s game against the Boston Celtics. “We were hoping he’d be ready for tonight, but it wasn’t the case. He just needs more time.”
As Law Murray of The Athletic tweets, the two-time MVP will be ineligible for major postseason awards due to the nagging injury, which is also known as runner’s knee. Curry has already missed 15 games this season and his continued absence will put him up to at least 20 — players can only miss 17 games to remain eligible for All-NBA and other honors.
Curry, who made 11 All-NBA teams in the 12 years leading up to this season, would have been a strong contender for that distinction again. The four-time champion remains highly productive at age 37 (he turns 38 next month), averaging 27.2 PPG, 4.8 APG, 3.5 RPG and 1.1 SPG on .468/.391/.931 shooting in 39 games (31.3 MPG).
In other Warriors news, trade acquisition Kristaps Porzingis is expected to make his debut for Golden State on Thursday, Slater tweets. The 30-year-old big man will be on a restriction of approximately 15-to-20 minutes and will come off the bench.
Porzingis went through Wednesday’s practice and impressed his former Celtics teammate.
“Looked great,” Al Horford said (Twitter video link via Slater). “Thought his timing was good, overall energy.”
Keeping him healthy for the postseason by missing all these meaningless games. Healthy Curry = GSW is a contender. Curry out also means GSW are actually building non-Curry offenses, a thing Kerr stinks at and is behind on doing, and a thing keeping them from being a top 4 team.
This Curry break is going to be used well now KP is healthy. They are already calling extra practices 5v5 with KP as the offensive focal point, so GSW hits the playoffs with Curry and KP and nonstop offense, as opposed to now, when its no Curry = no offense.
GSW playing chess, yall are playing checkers.
KP will never stay healthy, even if he was, the Warriors wouldn’t be close to contenders. 7th or 8th seed at best and getting swept in round 1
That’s the thing, all the other teams are in tank mode. 8th is the lowest they can finish.
Steph is never getting swept. Period. GSW without Steph, yeah sure lol
is that your mug shot, Jamar?
gotta make the playoffs first.
Who is going to make the leap out of all the very obviously rebuilding teams? Portland are 2 games behind them, maybe they can catch them, but that’s a longshot. I can see GSW going on a late season run like they did last year.
I think if Jimmy Butler didn’t tear his ACL, we would be having a way different conversation. All the Warriors players will need to step up and it will be difficult.
Difficult, yes. Impossible…no
Davey you are playing hungry hungry hippos and have lost 12 in a row. Please stop.
I mean, this is basic team management stuff lol. Obviously you prioritize the playoffs and give Curry as much rest as he needs.
And the Warriors should be thankful if they can get KP to play 50% of their remaining games given his condition. It may even be more like 33%. He’s not just injury prone now. He has a long-term medical condition that can rear its ugly head game to game, day to day. You don’t trade him as a rental for peanuts if he’s merely injury prone.
No big deal. Curry misses three weeks in February every year over something. He’ll come back, be strong and ready to go for a little playoff run if they can get there.
Fingers crossed Porzingis is ready to contribute.