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SAN FRANCISCO — A cloud of concern hung over the Golden State Warriors as Stephen Curry exited the court limping after sustaining a bruised right quadriceps during a narrow 104-100 defeat to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night.
Curry is set to have an MRI to assess the injury and clarify the extent of his absence from the team.
With Curry potentially sidelined, the Warriors must strategize on how to adjust their gameplay and player rotations.
“It obviously changes everything, our rotations, how we’re playing, who we’re playing through, so we’ll see,” remarked coach Steve Kerr. “When I heard it was a quad, I was actually kind of relieved; it’s better than an ankle or a knee issue, so hopefully, his recovery will be swift. But we’ve got to hold down the fort.”
The injury occurred when Curry and Amen Thompson collided hard under the basket with 3:24 left on the clock, the score locked at 91. Initially called an offensive foul against Thompson, Houston successfully challenged the play, resulting in the decision being changed to a blocking foul on Curry.
Kerr said he could see Curry ailing after that play. The two-time MVP finished with 14 points on 4-for-13 shooting — 2 of 9 on 3-pointers — seven rebounds, five assists and seven of the Warriors’ 16 turnovers that led to 22 Houston points.
“That’s a challenge, if Steph is out everybody else has to kind of improve their game a lot to fill that void,” rookie Will Richard said.
Guard Gary Payton II also suffered a sprained left ankle that limited him to just under five minutes.
Jimmy Butler said “it’s just sad” how the Warriors don’t follow their game plan and do the little things sometimes and challenged everybody to ”care more” about the details — especially if they’re without Curry.
“What will change the most? I think we’re going to have to be damn near perfect. We ain’t going to have the ultimate bailout on our team, but even when he is on the floor we’re going to have to do our job because we make the game real difficult. As great as a basketball player as he is he has a really hard job every single day, he’s got to be the Batman of all Batmans and save us every night. That ain’t what he’s here to do.”