We got one game — one — of the Warriors’ trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green all healthy at the same time. It was a 1,005-day wait. It won’t be that long again, but it appears the unceasing, “wait ’till they get healthy” Warriors mantra is back again.
In a muddy, bruising game between the two most effective defenses in the NBA, Curry and Moses Moody were both injured in the first half and did not return.
Golden State made a third-quarter run to close a 20-point deficit to 10, but the winds were already out of the Warriors’ sails. The deep parts of their bench got some run in a 110-88 loss that snapped a four-game winning streak.
Curry, Moody leave in first half, don’t return
There was a game on Wednesday night, but it ended, for all intents and purposes, with four minutes remaining in the second half.
Golden State trailed by eight points with four minutes left, when Curry’s ankle/foot was rolled up on by a diving Marcus Smart, who committed a leg-kicking flagrant foul on Klay Thompson about 10 seconds later.
That eight-point deficit doubled by the conclusion of the first half. Curry was deemed to have “left foot soreness,” which would be a best-case scenario if that’s how the diagnosis remains.
When he left, the Warriors offense sputtered, aside from Jordan Poole.
This came after Moses Moody was injured earlier in the game. He got yanked on a rebound attempt and promptly left the game with a shoulder injury. Neither he and Curry returned to the game. Curry, per Kerr, is undergoing a postgame MRI on the top of his foot.
Whatever the prognosis is, it’s a brutal situation after the Warriors finally seemed to be trending in the right direction again.
That empty feeling
Didn’t it feel so positive just a couple of nights ago? The trio was finally back. The Warriors were rolling. After Draymond Green and Otto Porter Jr.’s returns, James Wiseman was (is) next, with Andre Iguodala waiting in the wings.
We’re going to all have to do some waiting, again. Curry’s injury rendered the result of the game on Wednesday moot, and we’ll have to wait more to find out the severity of that injury, and potentially more to see him return.
It harkens back to an old, crass quote from Tom Moore, the former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator during the Peyton Manning era. Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski, then at ESPN, asked Moore why the Colts didn’t give their backup quarterbacks reps.
“Fellas, if 18 goes down, we’re fucked,” Moore said. “And we don’t practice fucked.”
The Warriors don’t prepare for 30 going down. Because if 30 goes down, well, you can fill in the blank.
If he’s out for any extended period, this offense is going to struggle. Maybe that could turn out to be a positive thing going into the playoffs, to force everyone else to try and figure it out. But that’s an especially rose-tinted way of looking at it, even if Quinndary Weatherspoon was fun for a few minutes.
It didn’t look like they could figure it out without Green. Even with him and Thompson back in the lineup, it’s an ominous situation without Curry.
That said, Jordan Poole looked awfully good in the second half and has for a few weeks straight, so…
Could Poole do enough to keep this offense afloat?
Let’s be clear, this is only pertaining to the regular season. If Curry’s out in the postseason, refer yourself again to the Tom Moore quote.
If Curry is not healthy in their first playoff series, the Warriors will very likely lose that series unless it’s the Timberwolves and everything goes right. And the Timberwolves haven’t exactly been an easy win.
This is a question about what Poole can do if Curry misses any sort of extended time.
He is the only consistent, dynamic ball-handler and scorer in this offense besides Curry. Wednesday, with a 29-point performance on 10-of-20 shooting and 6-of-13 from three, was his eighth-straight 20-plus-point scoring night in a row.
When Poole wasn’t in the game, it looked a lot like a college basketball team who couldn’t figure out how to break through a zone.
This happens a lot when teams play Syracuse for the first time, and the Warriors, against a stellar, athletic Boston defense, looked like they were having a similarly wretched time.
That is, everybody but Poole, who was woeful in the first half. He had just two first-half points before a 19-point third quarter that gave the Warriors some life and eventually cut the deficit to 10.
Poole is hitting his stride at the right time. Klay Thompson, who can at least be the clear No. 2 scorer in this offense if Curry is out, had another poor night, scoring 18 on 8-of-24 shooting and a staggering 1-for-13 mark from three. He’s now shooting 41.8 percent from the field this season.
It’s not encouraging that Moses Moody, who has been mostly silent after his 30-point outburst a few weeks ago, is also injured. But Andrew Wiggins, as well as Nemanja Bjelica, were out, and at some point it feels like it has to click, or at least improve, for Thompson.
There will be nights for Thompson and Jonathan Kuminga, too. But Poole’s the only consistent other scorer at this moment.
This is all a question of whether Poole can do enough — if Curry misses time — to allow the Warriors to retain the No. 3 seed. There’s a fair argument that the No. 4 seed might be an easier matchup, with the Mavericks.
Hopefully we don’t have to find out the answer to these questions, because they’re all fairly harrowing prospects if Curry’s not there.
