Steph Curry's thigh injury gives the warrior another mission: Buy him time

Athletics has a living reporting about the Warriors against Timberwolves In game 2 of the Western Conference semi -finals.

Minneapolis – Steve Kerr could not say anything in his depth when he watched the superstar, which he trained for eleven seasons, succumbed to the suffocating disappointment. Kerr already knew when the tears fell from Steph Curry's eyes, the heartache still fresh from the news that he wave his left armpit. Words were not what Curry needed. Or what Kerr had.

The head coach of Golden State Warriors in this half -time moment on Tuesday in the changing room of the Target Center did not even try to find the right words. He only hugged his Point Guard.

“It's all I could do,” said Kerr, after the Warriors game 1 99-88 of their playoff series of the second round won against the Minnesota Timberwolves. “I just feel so bad for him. Everything he does. How much he is interested.”

Injuries in sport are so normalized that they often hide their cruelty. The mentality “Next Man Up” has its way of dehumanating broken athletes to mere expensive devices that have to be renovated.

But that is not possible with curry and the warrior. Too much was poured into this opportunity, which was invested too much by the face of this franchise so that this cannot be felt.

This is anything but curry's first rodeo with injuries. But this is about more than an incredible injury. More than dealing with the tenderness of a knee tendon, always easy to react.

This is about returning to relevance, adhering to the belief against impending realities, overcoming any disappointment and being viable again.

The Warriors waited two years to return to the mix here again. As much planning and planning as you configure the squad and manage the current potential and responsibility for the future. Summon patience in the middle of mediocrity. So much change. So much loss. So many frustrations. So many reasons to let go, they lean into the next generation.

But Curry kept his foot in the championship door. All the work he needs to stay good enough. The whole strength it took to keep more to wear more. All the faith you needed to collect the optimism that you could find.

And they did it. You did it.

That's why they swear. It will need everything you need to beat a Timberwolves squad that is now marked without a curry. But they went through the season with depth. They came in the first round with resilience from Houston. It will take at least that to get through Minnesota.

And a lot of Jimmy Butler, who is here because of curry.

But the warriors have to find a way. Or die. Curry earns so much. He is 37 years old. These recent years have proof of how fleeting these options become. Who knows how far they could go, whether their belief in the championship is delusional or justified. But you cannot have it ended with a knee tendon.

“It's super motivating,” said Kevon Looney. “He has worn many of us on his back at the highest level. He has set a high standard and you just want to follow. He knows that we got his back. How long it will be, we'll go out and fight and try to win.

“We didn't put our heads. We know how to fight. We know how to be the men in war.”

When Curry in the second quarter of Tuesday against Nickeil Alexander Walker, a number of dribbles between the leg and a step-down step in front of a 3 pointer in the rainbow, it felt safe as if the warriors were back. Safe as an outsider, but terribly impressive. After a strenuous seven-game series against Houston, they saw ready for Minnesota.

These three were wild

📺 @Nbaontnt pic.twitter.com/o37udspdtp

– Golden State Warriors (@warriors) May 7, 2025

The warriors put their feet on the couch of the Timberwolves. And the Warriors only played it with Curry for 13 minutes. With curry on the floor? Minnesota could get into trouble and Golden State in the final of the Western Conference feels more real.

All of this changed after a sudden stop, plants and jump from Curry, who tried to stand in the way of a Mike Conley Jr. -Pass. Curry resorted to 9 minutes and 6 seconds in the second quarter, while he continued to play defense. He limp when he drove up the farm.

What he must have thought, the conversation he had with himself, as pain and restriction that he had never felt before.

Curry stopped and led her offensive set. He fidgeted more with the back of his leg after he had thrown the ball into the post in Draymond Green, and then rolled from the right elbow from a Buddy Hield screen into a floater.

Curry signaled the bank to get him out of the game after he brought Golden State 27-20 into the front with 8:48 Golden State. He would play a further offensive possession, draw a double team and help in the second quarter with Green's second of four 3s before getting a break from Minnesota out of the campaign.

On the pitch when the teams scattered for the time -out, Curry said to Green that he would go well and then went straight to the changing room, not even to move to the trainers first. He jogged the hallway and tried to do this to be something he could get through.

But that happens. An adversity that his will cannot overwhelm.

And thigh injuries are difficult. After an MRI on Wednesday, the team stated in a release that it would re -rate Curry in a week, which means that he will probably miss at least the next three games.

They are not the kind of injuries through which you can play. You have to have time to heal or linger, worsen. The first five games of this series have only one day between them. The Warriors will have three days off before game 6. That would be 11 days of treatment and recovery.

“It's hard,” said Butler. “One of the greatest people who have ever done and he wants to be out there. I think he knows and we know how much easier the game is for us when he hurts at a high level. But I think we are all ready without competing and without winning it. We don't want to be prepared and we may have to.”

But the reality of the thighs suggests that the Warriors have to find another victory in this series to bring this into a game 6 and to achieve the advantage of these days off.

Or you have to win this series without it. Otherwise, everything that gets at this moment is spoiled.

Some in this changing room have already gone through this.

In 2016, Curry slipped against Houston in a series of the first round in the second quarter of Game 4. These were the 73-9 Warriors who expected to drive on two championships. The story hung in balance while he was waiting for his MRI – a sprain of the 2nd class of his left MCL – and his return. Curry missed game 5 and the first three games of the next series. He was never completely recovered, but good enough to fight.

That the warriors did. Green and Klay Thompson recorded it until he came back. Curry came from the bank when he returned to an inferior Portland squad, and was freezing cold. He went out in the extension and scored 17 points, his famous “I'm back!” Game. Then he played 14 games in the next two series, and Golden State gathered back from a 3-1 deficit against Oklahoma City in the Western Conference final, then blew a 3-1 lead to Cleveland in the NBA final.

“It helps that we have already went through it,” said Green. “You can rely on these experiences. We'll hold him. We have to do it. It helps we get game 1. And it helps we have Jimmy Butler.”

Curry did not comfort this déjà vu on Tuesday evening. He is now older. Less resistant to sick muscles and ligaments. That's why he trains so hard to cope with the cargo he wears.

Now the burden is psychological. Before the half ended, Curry had to find his perspective. He had to resume his position as the leader. Which meant to deploy the tears, to pick up a brave face, to raise his teammates and to talk about what he saw.

After the game in the chaos of victory in the changing room, Curry sat quietly and smiled at everything he heard through his blue earphones. Finally he got up and went out of the changing room after a short exchange with Gary Payton II. Cautious. The hopes of the warriors who are bound to the knee tendon that he prefers.

His return lies with his teammates and the spirit of the sizes that they have built in the past three months. You have to buy him time with victories. This exhausting season with its many twists and endless victims does not end.

(Photo by Steph Curry: Jesse D. Garrabrant / Nbae about Getty Images)