Haven't really followed the season this year, but gotta watch some playoffs. GS - Rockets looks tasty, hoping for a Cleveland - OKC finals.
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the most important part of Monday’s announcement was this: “He will be re-evaluated in two weeks.”
Sorry, but in no way does that suggest he’ll be ready to play in two weeks, no matter how mild the sprain.
That two-week evaluation will assess what he’s been able to accomplish between now and then. Are these two weeks going to be productive? Has the swelling gone down enough for him to begin rehabbing the injury? Can he tolerate weight-bearing activity? Change directions? Start and stop?
Can he be Steph Curry?
If he can’t do anything, if activity is limited to rest, ice and compression, then those two weeks become even longer.
Remember, before Sunday’s knee injury, Curry missed the preceding game with an ankle sprain. I know everyone is looking at the replay of the knee sprain and saying, “It was just one of those things.” But in this case, if you really look at how he tweaked the ankle, you’ll understand that it wasn’t “just a slip.” Without a doubt, that weakened ankle contributed to the knee sprain; when he slipped on the court, the ankle instability couldn’t help protect the knee. The entire body is a chain: one rusty link puts extra stress on the other links and weakens the entire chain.
Curry was wearing an ankle brace when the knee injury occurred, and it’s a reasonable bet that the brace jeopardized the knee. Why? Because while the ankle is immobilized, what's the next point of vulnerability? The knee. The stress moves right up the chain.
Maybe more of 'just part of the game' than a freak accident, but you are correct.Merckx index said:This is about the best result the Warriors could have hoped for, but it really puts the championship in jeopardy. The official finding is that he will be reevaluated in two weeks, and may or may not be cleared to play at time. He will miss some of the semifinal games, almost for sure, and maybe the entire series. And maybe more.
I'm surprised at the number of sportswriters who think the Warriors can win the second round, probably against the Clippers, without Curry. In one roundtable I read, 3/5 picked the Warriors to beat the Clippers if Curry was out for the entire series, and one of the others picked them if Curry came back midway through the series.
The Clippers were a pretty good team this year even without Griffin, and now they have him. In their two games with him vs. the Warriors this season, they led by double digits in the fourth quarter before going down. I really don't see how the Warriors can beat them without Curry. It's possible they might play Portland instead, but I doubt that.
Great players make a big difference to a team in the NBA. When Jordan retired to play baseball, the Bulls went from three consecutive championships to a team that couldn't get past the second round. In fact, when MJ returned after missing one full season and about half of another, and had about half of that second season to get back in form, they still were a shell of the team they had been.
And if somehow the Warriors get past the second round, they will probably be playing the Spurs in the conference finals. No way they win that series without Curry. Even if he can play by then, he will need time to get back in form. So if he misses the entire semifinals, and the team somehow wins, I have a hard time seeing how the Warriors win the finals with a very rusty Curry in the first few games.
I think the only way the Warriors go all the way is if Curry heals faster than projected, which is quite possible, and gets back into action no later than the fourth game of the semifinal series. The team will have to make a very difficult decision about doing everything possible to advance in the postseason vs. making sure they don't rush him back and risk aggravating the injury with possible long-term consequences. Even then, it will be tough.
I do think this validates the team's going all out for the wins record this year. There's no reason to think this injury had anything to do with extra effort during the season--it was basically a freak accident--so if the Warriors don't win the championship, they will still have that record to celebrate.
Remember, before Sunday’s knee injury, Curry missed the preceding game with an ankle sprain. I know everyone is looking at the replay of the knee sprain and saying, “It was just one of those things.” But in this case, if you really look at how he tweaked the ankle, you’ll understand that it wasn’t “just a slip.” Without a doubt, that weakened ankle contributed to the knee sprain; when he slipped on the court, the ankle instability couldn’t help protect the knee. The entire body is a chain: one rusty link puts extra stress on the other links and weakens the entire chain.
Curry was wearing an ankle brace when the knee injury occurred, and it’s a reasonable bet that the brace jeopardized the knee. Why? Because while the ankle is immobilized, what's the next point of vulnerability? The knee. The stress moves right up the chain.
BullsFan22 said:More injuries to big players tonight. Chris Paul breaks hand, out 4-6 weeks and Blake Griffin has more quad issues. He is 50/50 for the next game. At first glance, it doesn't look good for the Clippers. Many people actually thought they could give the Warriors quite a scare, but now, they are in worse shape (literally and figuratively) than the Dubs. Portland has a young, up and coming team that plays really well at home, so this one could very well go 7 games. No Griffin or Paul will obviously hurt the Clippers. If Curry's injury doesn't keep him out more than the two week prognosis he's been given, then the Dubs are still favorites to defend their title. If he has to miss more time, then it obviously pegs them back. They can't afford to have him out against the Spurs and/or Thunder. Though the way Portland has been playing and if they keep gaining confidence and get past an injured Clippers team, it won't be one way traffic for the Warriors in round two, that's for sure.
The Cavs don't seem to have too many rivals in the East, so i don't see them losing before the finals. It's too bad, because I am not exactly a Lebron fan.
Merckx index said:BullsFan22 said:More injuries to big players tonight. Chris Paul breaks hand, out 4-6 weeks and Blake Griffin has more quad issues. He is 50/50 for the next game. At first glance, it doesn't look good for the Clippers. Many people actually thought they could give the Warriors quite a scare, but now, they are in worse shape (literally and figuratively) than the Dubs. Portland has a young, up and coming team that plays really well at home, so this one could very well go 7 games. No Griffin or Paul will obviously hurt the Clippers. If Curry's injury doesn't keep him out more than the two week prognosis he's been given, then the Dubs are still favorites to defend their title. If he has to miss more time, then it obviously pegs them back. They can't afford to have him out against the Spurs and/or Thunder. Though the way Portland has been playing and if they keep gaining confidence and get past an injured Clippers team, it won't be one way traffic for the Warriors in round two, that's for sure.
The Cavs don't seem to have too many rivals in the East, so i don't see them losing before the finals. It's too bad, because I am not exactly a Lebron fan.
Yes, the plot thickens! If the Clips pull out the series, the Warriors without Curry should definitely be favored over the Clips without Paul (though not everyone assumes he's done, someone said he might be back in a week), with or without Griffin. They really would have no excuses for not winning that series (and I was one who thought the Clippers did have a shot at beating the Warriors, even with Curry). I think GS without Curry would also have a decent chance against the Blazers, though Portland handed the Warriors their worst loss of the season. This last game may have been an exception, but generally, if you shut/slow down Lillard and McCollum, you beat that team, and the Warriors without Curry are actually better defensively, particularly at the perimeter where Portland's two guards feast.
In any case, the Blazers’ win makes it more probable that the series goes seven games, which would mean it would end on May 1. I assume the semis in that case would not start before May 3, and maybe even May 4. That is nine days from the Curry MRI. In that case, he would probably be re-evaluated before Game 3, definitely before Game 4, though even if he were actually cleared to play, I don’t know if he would. At that point he would have played less than 40 minutes, about the equivalent of one full game, over the previous three and half weeks.
People should also remember that for most of the season, the Warriors have only been considered to have about a 40-45% chance of winning it all, assuming full strength. That's because it's assumed they would have to go through the Spurs, which were rated by the stats as almost as good. Those odds may have changed a little after the Warriors beat the Spurs twice near the end of the season, but that still figures to be a very tough series, even if Curry is at 100%.
I don't know what to make of the Cavs. They swept Detroit, but the games were for the most part very close. Was the team able to turn it on when they needed to, or were they just lucky?
Billie said:Clippers give up. Blake Griffin out for the remainder of the postseason.
A stale Curry is better than no Curry if he rushes back too soon and ends up out again.Merckx index said:Word is that Curry thinks he can play in Game 3 of the Portland series, next Saturday. Game two is Tuesday, but then there’s an unusually long gap till Game 3. At that point it would be twelve days since the MRI, when it was announced that Curry would be re-evaluated in two weeks.
Curry doesn’t make this decision, though. After the ankle injury in Game 1 of the Houston series, he thought he would play in Game 3 of that series, and he didn’t. But there’s a delicate balancing act here. While the longer he rests, the healthier he will get, he’ll also get staler from the inactivity. Assuming the Warriors win this semifinal series, they will definitely need Curry in the conference finals, and if he doesn’t play at all vs. Portland, he would go into that series out of action for two and a half to three weeks (and very limited action for another nearly two weeks before that). He would not be 100%, and that could make a critical difference.
So it may not be as simple as having Curry sit as long as the team keeps winning. If the Warriors were to win games 2 and 3 without Curry, he probably would not get enough time in Game 4 to get back to speed. Then the team would be in the strange position of almost wanting to lose to extend the series.
Assuming Curry is healthy enough to play, the ideal situation would probably be for him to play games 3 and 4, and a game 5. That would give him three games to shake off the rust, and also reduce the time of layoff between the end of that series and the beginning of the next. And Curry’s return not only makes the team stronger, but provides a little rest to the other starters, who have had to play longer and harder than usual in his absence.
Above I agreed with you that SC would be stale, but he could still help the team. I guess that he is only stale for a few minutes instead of a few games. He is just in 'the zone'.Merckx index said:The Curry legend grows with a game for the ages...
He didn't start tonight, but entered the game in the middle of the second quarter. He missed his first nine three point attempts, his first shot was actually an air ball, but he seemed to get comfortable in the fourth quarter, scoring ten points. The game went into OT, and he scored 17 more points, more than the entire Portland team, and apparently an all-time NBA record for a player in OT. He finished with 40 points in about 37 minutes, about as much time as he had played total previously this postseason. The plan was to play him about twenty-five minutes, but that went out the window when his backup was ejected just before the end of the first half.
So much for my theory that he would need 2-3 games to get back to speed. The Warriors chances of repeating as champs now look better than they have since he went down in the first postseason game with an ankle injury. They can win this series and move on to the conference finals with a win at home in a couple of days, and without worrying that Curry needs more time to rehab. Also, the Spurs-Thunder series will go at least six games, so the Warriors could get some extended rest if they can close out the series in Game 5.
Cleveland still hasn't lost, could be a repeat of last year's finals match-up, and maybe the Cavs are a better team than they appeared to be during the regular season.
Valv.Piti said:Warriors are doneso
No sir they're not. I also bet 2000 pesos (125 USD) that says that they will win!Valv.Piti said:Warriors are doneso
jmdirt said:Cavs in 6.
KD to NY for '16-'17.