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 damage makes the Golden State Warriors‘ path to extra collection 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 damage, nevertheless it nonetheless means he’ll miss no less than the following three video games. If the Warriors can win a type of video games, Curry may sit till Sport 6 on Might 18, giving him 12 days of restoration time.
Can the Warriors keep afloat whereas Curry is out? They will must lean closely on Jimmy Butler to do it. “Playoff Jimmy” has carried short-handed groups to playoff success up to now, due to his playmaking, protection and robust capability to get to the foul line.
“Yearly the playoffs are about adapting, whether or not it’s a sport plan or an damage or a lineup, so we simply should adapt,” head coach Steve Kerr mentioned, per NBA.com. “We’ve accomplished this earlier than, and we’re assured we will do that once more.
“We predict we now have one of the best protection within the league, and that’s been confirmed over the past couple of months.”
Golden State obtained 5 three-pointers from Buddy Hield in Sport 1 and 4 from Draymond Inexperienced, however they’re going to want a few of their younger position gamers to step up. Second-year guard Brandin Podziemski scored solely three factors Tuesday evening, however he had a 26-point effort towards the Rockets. Moses Moody will probably play greater than his 9 minutes Tuesday, however his taking pictures has been inconsistent, whereas Gary Payton II’s offensive sport 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 instances, 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 group in February, such models have a point differential of +12.8 due to 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 properly.
It may be laborious for the Warriors to mount comebacks in the event that they fall behind too far. However their protection may be sufficient to maintain them on this collection till — or if — Curry returns.
