Golden State didn’t have any problems with Houston in Game 1 of its first-round series even though Steph Curry battled an ankle injury. His availability for Game 2 Monday night, however, remains in question. Curry didn’t practice Sunday and wasn’t available to the media, either.
“It kind of changes things,” head coach Steve Kerr said (via NBA.com) about Curry’s absence. “We don’t seem to be as good of a coaching staff when Steph goes out. I don’t know why. But we’ve got a lot of guys who can play. I think Steph missed three or four games this year and we did fine. Obviously we’ve got to find different ways to score, but we’ll prepare for that and see what happens.”
Kerr isn’t wrong to note that Curry’s absence changes things. That’s a given. But the Warriors are also 2-1 without Curry this year and one of those wins came against the Rockets. As it stands now, Curry may or may not play Monday, but the good news is two-fold: 1) He didn’t have a noticeable limp Sunday when he attended practice and 2) there’s an extended rest period between Game 2 and Game 3 on Thursday.
Even if Curry were to somehow miss the remainder of the series — that’s purely a hypothetical, worst-case scenario under the assumption that he re-injures his ankle and does serious damage — Golden State is still a far superior team to the Rockets. However, the latter rounds of the playoffs would become extremely interesting. Then, and only then, would the vision of Golden State repeating as NBA champs be called into question.
