Steph Curry continued his scorching taking pictures from the second half of Sport 7 towards the Houston Rockets by scoring 13 factors in 13 minutes in Sport 1 towards the Minnesota Timberwolves. However his hamstring harm makes the Golden State Warriors‘ path to extra sequence wins far more onerous.
The Warriors introduced Wednesday that Curry would miss at least one week after he was recognized with a Grade 1 hamstring pressure. That is comparatively excellent news for the Warriors, since that is the lowest diploma of harm, however it nonetheless means he’ll miss at the very least the following three video games. If the Warriors can win a kind of video games, Curry might sit till Sport 6 on Could 18, giving him 12 days of restoration time.
Can the Warriors keep afloat whereas Curry is out? They will have to lean closely on Jimmy Butler to do it. “Playoff Jimmy” has carried short-handed groups to playoff success up to now, because of his playmaking, protection and powerful capability to get to the foul line.
“Yearly the playoffs are about adapting, whether or not it’s a recreation plan or an harm or a lineup, so we simply should adapt,” head coach Steve Kerr mentioned, per NBA.com. “We’ve achieved this earlier than, and we’re assured we are able to do that once more.
“We predict we’ve got the most effective protection within the league, and that’s been confirmed over the past couple of months.”
Golden State received 5 three-pointers from Buddy Hield in Sport 1 and 4 from Draymond Inexperienced, however they will want a few of their younger position gamers to step up. Second-year guard Brandin Podziemski scored solely three factors Tuesday night time, however he had a 26-point effort towards the Rockets. Moses Moody will doubtless play greater than his 9 minutes Tuesday, however his taking pictures has been inconsistent, whereas Gary Payton II’s offensive recreation is primarily created by others within the type of nook threes and dunks.
The wild card is Jonathan Kuminga, the fourth-year ahead who had fallen out of coach Steve Kerr’s rotation within the first spherical. Whereas Kuminga has struggled, he does have a novel capability among the many remaining Warriors to drive to the ring and draw fouls. The Warriors will want Kuminga to hold the scoring load at occasions, regardless of his defensive limitations.
The Warriors’ greatest hope comes on the opposite facet of the ball, the place Curry-free lineups that includes Butler have been top-tier defenses. Since Butler joined the crew in February, such items have a point differential of +12.8 because of their lockdown protection. Payton and Inexperienced aren’t nice shooters, however they’re elite defenders, as is Butler. Giving extra minutes to Moody and heart Kevon Looney provides the Warriors extra rebounding and protection as nicely.
It may be laborious for the Warriors to mount comebacks in the event that they fall behind too far. However their protection is likely to be sufficient to maintain them on this sequence till — or if — Curry returns.
