The magical 8-game winning streak came to a crashing halt last night after Steph Curry left in the first quarter with an injury and today the season at large feels on the verge of collapse as the Golden State Warriors have announced that their franchise cornerstone is out with an oblique abdominal tear.
The timeline for his return ought to be an open question at this point, as their press release mentions that he’ll be reevaluated in two (2) weeks. That tracks with the reporting last night that he felt
a pain he had never felt before.
This type of injury can be overcome without the need for surgery, but in that scenario, it’s usually a 3-4 week timeline for recovery… if it’s closer to a strain. But this is being described as a “tear,” which could very easily mean a couple of months recovery time. And, of course, it’s the type of injury that could very easily recur going forward. There’s a lot of fast and twisting upper body motion needed to get an open shot or disrupt a passing lane.
It was only a couple of days ago that the Warriors lost Steph’s backup to a hamstring strain, so the injury picture has grown from outsized to overwhelming. Steph, Brandon Williams, Jimmy Butler, Moses Moody, Gary Payton II, Will Richard, Kristaps Porzingis — it’s not as though Golden State had All-Star backups or were the deepest team in the association heading into the season, but there’s “testing a team’s depth” and there’s “Oops! All injured,” and, folks, we’re here.
There’s no making up for Curry’s ~28 a night and clutch shots, but if there is one throughline through this weird start to a season it’s that rotations have had a pretty solid flow to them in spite of the injuries. As Draymond put it last night:
“The spirit of this team is better,” Green said. “We’re more certain of who we are, what makes us a good team. I think that puts us in a better position to be successful without him as opposed to where we were last year. Then obviously [Yaxel Lendeborg], having a guy you can give the ball to and he can create an advantage. [Brandin Podziemski] is playing a lot better. … It puts us in a better position.”
This isn’t to suggest that Yaxel & Pods will each score 40 a night and everyone else who’s left will step up, but this puzzle that the team had been working hard to piece together already just has to keep up that effort and see what shakes out.
Hopefully, the Warriors are able to weather this surprise storm until Steph Curry returns.
