LOS ANGELES — “It’s just a magnet.”
That was how Stephen Curry described getting kicked in the leg again — the same leg with the same contusion that caused him to miss two games recently in hopes of healing this injury.
The question is will there be more rest in Curry’s future? He doesn’t want to sit — he wouldn’t even come out of Tuesday’s game when it happened, with the Warriors blowing the Lakers out — but he admitted this could linger. How long is it supposed to take to heal?
“Probably like four weeks, but I’m not going to sit out four weeks,” Curry said. “Just got to figure out how to protect it when I’m out there on the floor and keep playing.”
The re-injury (or is it re-re-injury if this is the third time?) happened the third quarter of the Warriors’ win. Curry drove and made a scoop layup under and around Lakers’ big man Roy Hibbert. But as he did it their legs collided. Shin on shin. The second it happened Curry came up limping, he was in obvious pain going down the court. The Warriors quickly committed a foul and called time out to get Curry out of the game.
Except he wouldn’t come out.
“I wasn’t going to put him back out at first, but he was pretty adamant about going back out,” Warriors “interim” coach Luke Walton said. “I asked the trainers, and they said he’s good, so we put him back out.”
Walton said if the training staff had said to pull him then it would have been out of Curry’s hands, but they didn’t. The Warriors are a player-friendly organization and Walton is the kind of coach who understands trying to play through pain, so he defers to what the player wants. Walton reminded everyone he used to play with Kobe Bryant in this building, a guy who played through a lot worse, and Walton knows elite competitors don’t want to come out. Ever.
Curry didn’t sound like a guy wanting time off, he wants to play through it.
“It’s just frustrating and annoying and any other adjective you want to throw in there,” Curry said. “Long term it isn’t something I need to worry about, it’s just playing through an injury, it’s just there. It doesn’t get worse unless I get kicked, and that’s happened three times since I did it, so hopefully it won’t keep happening. I’m trying all sorts of pads and stuff, but when I’m out there on the floor I’m not worried about it.”
Whether Curry sits will depend on how he feels over the next couple days, but the Warriors are off until Friday. Still at 33-2 on the season, they can afford to sit him for a couple of games to let this heal a little.
Just don’t expect him to be out a month.
