OAKLAND — When Stephen Curry returns from injury, he expects to play. And when he is subbed out of the game, he may show malcontent, which we saw last game, when the Warriors led the Pelicans by 19 points late in the third quarter of Game 4.
Steph Curry to Steve Kerr as he’s walking to the bench: “Get me right back in the game…” pic.twitter.com/oRKc8IR17l
— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) May 6, 2018
“Every time I get subbed out I’m kind of pissed off, really, to be honest with you,” Curry said after the 118-92 win. “Just because I feel like I have a little bit more in the tank.”
Steve Kerr saw the same fiery Curry earlier in the game, with fewer than four minutes remaining in the first quarter. Kerr was going to sub out Curry, until he saw his point guard’s countenance.
“Quinn started to come in for him and Steph gave me this look,” Kerr said prior to Game 5 Tuesday night. “And I said, ‘Quinn, come back, come back. Let’s not make Steph mad.’ So, we just gave (Curry) one more play, then he turned it over, and I put Quinn in.”
Curry has shown no lingering signs of a sprained knee that sidelined him for 16 games upon his Game 2 return last Tuesday. He has played increasingly more minutes with each passing contest.
Prior to Golden State’s Game 5 matchup with the visiting New Orleans Pelicans Tuesday night, Kerr updated Curry’s health, which appears to be improving with time.
“I think he is really making strides,” Kerr said. “And he told me the same thing this morning: that he feels good, and he said he has no pain in his knee, which is great. But the rest of his body has to catch up to the workload and the grind of NBA playoff games. He is getting there.”
In his return last Tuesday, Curry came off the bench to score 28 points in 27 minutes. In Game 3, he returned to the starting lineup, pouring in 19 points in 29 minutes. In Game 4, Curry poured in 23 points in 32 minutes, his season average.
The two-time NBA MVP was the last of Golden State’s injured All-Stars to return to the court. His absence was the most prolonged, missing more than five weeks, which included the Warriors’ opening-round series win over the San Antonio Spurs.
Kerr is proactively monitoring Curry’s minutes and finding ways to ease him back into his typical workload.
“It’s going to be game-to-game, but (he is) feeling more comfortable playing longer minutes,” Kerr said. “We purposely left him out there last game when the game was decided, just to get him another couple minutes and a couple more shots to get that rhythm.”
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