Kurtenbach: Steph Curry’s injury is a depressing but fitting cap to the
Warriors’ regular season
Steph Curry injury: The Warriors guard is reportedly out "indefinitely"
after Celtics guard Marcus Smart injured his foot.
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 16:
Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) limps off the court in the
first quarter of their NBA game at Chase Center in San Francisco,
Calif., on Wednesday, March 16, 2022. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 16: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen
Curry (30) limps off the court in the first quarter of their NBA game at
Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
(Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
Group
PUBLISHED: March 17, 2022 at 10:04 a.m. | UPDATED: March 17, 2022 at
11:23 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/03/17/kurtenbach-steph-currys-injury-is-a-depressing-but-fitting-cap-to-the-warriors-regular-season/

Eleven minutes.

Two games.

That’s all the time the Warriors’ championship triumvirate of Steph
Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson have played together this season.

That’s all the time they have played together since Game 6 of the 2019
NBA Finals.

And with Curry now sidelined indefinitely with a sprained ligament in
his foot, it’s fair to question if those 11 minutes will be the totality
of their time together before the start of the 2022 NBA playoffs.

Indefinite.

That’s how NBA newsbreaker Shams Charania described the timeframe for
Curry’s return.

A week, a few weeks, a few months? With 12 games to play in the regular
season, every day matters.

But “indefinite” was fitting, too.

What has this Warriors season been if not indefinite?

This team’s quality — its status as a championship contender?

It’s been a tough read, indeed.

Indefinite.

Klay Thompson’s return date from his back-to-back leg injuries? That
timeframe was indefinite for months, if not years.

Draymond Green’s return from his subsequent back/calf injury?

The initial diagnosis of the injury was indefinite. His return time? The
same.

Starting to see a pattern develop?

James Wiseman’s return — now imminent — was indefinite for months.

Andrew Iguodala? Right now, I don’t think his existence is definite.

But the theoretical veteran wing will theoretically return… at some
point. Indefinite.

How’s Jordan Poole going to play in the next game? Indefinite.

Does Steve Kerr trust Jonathan Kuminga? That’s indefinite, too.

Say what you will about Andrew Wiggins, he at least has the decency to
just be indecisive on the court.

But we should have seen this coming. Not Curry’s injury, of course, but
the fickleness of this Warriors season.

Yes, this instability and this nebulousness are byproducts of having a
veteran team — of rolling with the guys who have been through the
battles, who fought the wars.

Curry’s injury might have been of a freak (or dirty) nature — the foot
sprain came when Boston’s Marcus Smart dove for a loose ball and went
into Curry’s leg first — but things like that will happen in the NBA.
Sorry, it’s true. You roll the dice every minute of every game. The dice
might be loaded with Smart on the floor, but the risks are understood.

[video https://gfycat.com/@dkurtenbach]

But because of all of the Warriors’ other injuries, this team lost its
margin for error months ago. While the Phoenix Suns have the depth and
the cushion to hold onto the 1 seed without Chris Paul since the
All-Star Game, the Warriors find themselves in no such position.

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There are only two things definite about Curry’s injury.

First: It sucks.

Second: This is going to put the Warriors in an even more precarious
spot for the remainder of the season.

Throw away the Warriors’ upcoming road trip. There’s no chance Curry is
on that plane given this team’s conservatism with injuries and their
one-eye-on-the-playoffs focus since Christmas.

How long Curry is out after that is anyone’s guess.

But without Curry, the Warriors are exceptionally vulnerable.

As of Thursday morning, they are in the No. 3 seed, 2.5 games up on the
Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks in the standings, 5 games up on the
sixth-seeded Nuggets, the final real playoff team.

Because of Poole’s emergence as a top-flight scorer, the Warriors’
situation isn’t going to be as dire as the whole of the 2019-20
campaign, when they were the worst team in the NBA.

But it’s a good thing the Warriors have spent the last few weeks telling
the world that they don’t care about home-court advantage in the
playoffs, because I seriously doubt they’ll have it in any round once
the “real season” begins.