The Golden State Warriors took down the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series, but it proved to be a costly victory. Curry left the game early with what has been since categorized as a grade 1 hamstring strain, and will miss the Warriors’ next few games as well as he works his way back.
Curry addressed the injury during the Warriors’ shootaround ahead of Game 2.
“This is new, and from all that I’m learning about how quickly you can get back, there has to be a healing process,” he said, according to ESPN. “You can’t accelerate it more than what it’s telling you.
So it’ll be one of those, after a week, really reevaluating every day to understand when it’s safe just to even think about playing, let alone how much can you push it.”
Curry noted that before the injury, everything felt A-ok.
“I felt great the whole game up until that point,” Curry said. “And then I made a little pivot move on defense and felt something, didn’t think it was nothing or anything. I felt like I could just go get it released and be able to come back out.
“But with soft tissue, stuff like that, it was one of those situations I could have done more damage if I tried to go back out. So obviously a tough break, but hopefully I’ll be back soon.”
However, if Curry is to be believed, the Warriors aren’t in low spirits about the injury, and are ready to hold things down until their leader can return to play.
“There is a great vibe in our locker room in terms of them trying to hold the fort down,” Curry said. “We have a lot of confidence that we can still win the series, and guys step up no matter how it looks. And it’s obviously a situation where you want to think positively and optimistically that we can win games and buy me some time to get back and stretch, hopefully have another series after this and be able to be in a position where I can get back out there safely where I’m not putting too much risk on the body if it’s not ready.”
Jimmy Butler has already shown that he can lead a team on a deep postseason run. He just has to do it one more time.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.