MIAMI (AP) — Stephen Curry's road trip is ending a game early, with the Golden State Warriors making the decision to hold the NBA's all-time 3-point leader out of Wednesday night's game in Miami against the Heat.
Curry is sitting out with right ankle soreness. He tweaked the ankle in a game Friday at San Antonio
and did it again Tuesday in a game at Orlando, but was able to keep playing in both of those contests.The matchup is the finale of a six-game,
nine-day trip for the Warriors, who are 3-2 on the trip going into Wednesday.
Al Horford (left toe injury management) and Jonathan Kuminga (knee tendonitis) are also out for Golden State against Miami, with Jimmy Butler (back), Draymond Green (illness) and Buddy Hield (illness) all questionable.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr has pointed out multiple times that such a long trip is tough enough, yet this one was made tougher because the jammed schedule didn't provide his team an opportunity to practice.
“We all know what the schedule’s been like and I know coach talked about it ... we try not to think about it too much knowing it is what it is,” Curry said after Tuesday night's loss in Orlando. “You have to find a way to overcome it. We've done a decent job, we let (two) games slide that we feel like we wish we would have had, but we’re all right right now.”
Wednesday's game will be Golden State's 17th in 30 days to start the season and 12th on the road, both of which are league-highs. Toronto was playing its 10th road game on Wednesday and some teams have played as few as five away from home; New York was playing its fifth away game of the season Wednesday in Dallas.
Kerr has long been a proponent of shortening the schedule to 72 games and — like many others — has applauded the league for moves it has made in scheduling in recent years, like eliminating the long-dreaded runs of four games in five nights. He knows his 72-game quest will almost certainly never happen, but times like these fuel his argument for more rest or practice days.
“I just think if we’re actually focused on the product, it would be great,” Kerr said. "We literally have not had a single practice on this road trip, not one. We’ve been gone a week, or longer, eight days, not one practice, because it’s just game, game, game. So, not only is there no recovery time, there’s no practice time.
“The league has done a great job of trying to protect players by not overloading the schedule with four (games) in five nights,” Kerr continued. “But now it’s basically we’re playing every other night and the flip side of that is we’re not getting any practice time. And the wear and tear is there anyway, because it’s the accumulation of all those games and the speed and the pace and mileage and everything else.”
Following their flight home after Wednesday's game, Golden State will begin a five-game homestand.
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