The Warriors made an impressive start to their postseason quest for a second straight NBA championship, but Steph Curry is “questionable” for Monday night’s match-up against the Rockets, according to coach Steve Kerr.
Curry scored 24 points and dazzled from long range as Golden State beat Houston 104-78 on Saturday, but rolled his ankle just before half-time and Kerr said Curry is a doubt for game two.
“As far as Monday, I’d say Steph is questionable,” Kerr said. “We’ll see how he responds the next couple of days and go from there.”
Curry tweaked the ankle after missing a shot with 2:12 remaining in the second quarter, and left the game for treatment. He returned to the court after half-time but then went back to the locker room to get the ankle re-taped.
He came back in the third quarter only to be substituted out by Kerr, but Curry played down fears that he’d be missing on Monday.
“Right now, don’t see a scenario where I’ll be out,” Curry said at the postgame podium.
“Obviously, if it’s not right and I’m at risk of further injury or whatnot, that’s the only thing that we’ll have to worry about,” he said. “Pain tolerance and all that stuff, I kind of know what I can deal with on the court. But you don’t want anything more serious to happen, favoring an ankle or whatnot. So that’s what we’ll kind of pay attention to the next two days.”
Draymond Green added 12 points and 10 rebounds as the top seeds continued their momentum from setting the NBA’s all-time wins record in a testy playoff opener.
“I didn’t like the way [Curry] was moving when he went back out in the third quarter,” Kerr said. “He wanted to stay in, but he wasn’t moving well, so we weren’t going to play him, regardless of what happened.”
Curry lobbied Golden State assistants to appeal to Kerr, but his case fell on deaf ears.
“We all swung and missed,” Curry said.
Curry found himself in a few physical exchanges. Most notably, Curry shoved Patrick Beverley after the Rockets point guard committed a reach-in foul and got tangled on Curry’s arm.
“It set the tone. We didn’t want to come out here and start fights, of course not,” Beverley said. “That’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to go out here and play basketball. We’re not backing down from anybody, and we’re trying to win a basketball series.”
Curry pushed back when asked whether Beverley is a “dirty player.”
“Nah, he’s an aggressive player,” Curry said. “He plays hard. He tries to get under your skin with certain things that he does, but that’s kind of his MO. I wouldn’t call it dirty at all.”
