It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who has watched the Warriors for the last decade-plus, but Saturday’s Game 1 loss to the Sacramento Kings was decided in the minutes that Stephen Curry sat.
Curry’s rest at the end of the third and beginning of the four quarter swung the game. When Curry sat with over two minutes left in the third frame the Warriors led by eight. When he returned a few minutes into the fourth, they trailed by four.
It was a significant 12 point swing that Golden State never recovered from, and it begs the question, will Curry play more than the 37 minutes he did in Game 1 in Game 2?
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, don’t count on it.
“It didn’t sound like it yesterday, because Steve [Kerr] did talk after practice and pretty clearly stated that the answer was not having Steph play 40-plus minutes,” Amick told Papa & Lund. “Does not seem like that’s where his head is at. Seems like the coaching staff’s focus is more on ironing out those wrinkles when he is off the floor.”
“48 hours in between Games 1 and 2, I think he played 38 minutes,” Kerr said on Sunday. “We just didn’t do a very good job while he was out. I don’t regret resting him… Playing Steph 40+ minutes isn’t the answer, the answer is handling the non-Steph minutes better.”
Kings star De’Aaron Fox played 40 minutes in Game 1 and was the game’s biggest difference maker, but at 25 years old is also a decade younger than Curry. Amick said that the amount of milage on Curry is something Kerr has to take into account.
“It cannot be forgotten, I know he doesn’t show signs of getting older, but he’s 35,” Amick said. “I think that’s a consideration. Let him be as impactful as he can be in a high-30 minute type of role and figure out the rotation from there.”
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