Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry returned to game action on Friday night after dealing with an ankle injury, and left in the third quarter of the Warriors-Hawks game with a left knee injury.
You can see Curry telling the Warriors’ trainer where the knee hurts here:
The knee injury was initially diagnosed as a strain, and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Curry will undergo an MRI on Saturday:
Golden State's Steph Curry will undergo an MRI on his left knee Saturday, league source tells ESPN. Curry left game tonight with what Warriors are calling a strain.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 24, 2018
The Vertical’s Shams Charania said the initial diagnosis specifically has it as an MCL injury:
Warriors star Stephen Curry has initial diagnosis of an MCL injury to his left knee, league sources tell Yahoo. MRI on Saturday for degree of severity.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 24, 2018
On March 8, Curry left the Warriors-Spurs game — before Golden State even scored a point — with a right ankle injury. It was the fourth time since December that Curry had injured his right ankle. After the (again, fourth) ankle injury, I wrote how Steph Curry should just sit out the rest of the regular season.
On March 16, the Warriors announced Kevin Durant suffered an incomplete rib-cartilage fracture, in the same game Klay Thompson suffered a fractured thumb. I wrote how the Warriors need to just put their star players in bubble wrap until the playoffs. Three days later, Draymond Green left the Warriors’ game with a pelvic contusion.
There’s really no good explanation for Curry to return for this game, when the Warriors were basically locked into the 2-seed anyway. The Warriors will likely cruise to the Western Conference Finals, and Curry and the rest of these stars have time to wear off the rust in the two rounds before that.
Sure, a potentially serious knee injury was quite unlikely, but why risk *anything*, especially when Curry has been banged up constantly since early December? The value in playing these final regular season games doesn’t outweigh the risk that comes with it. Golden State has been there and done that so many times, and we know they will do that — at least until the Western Conference Finals — *as long as they’re healthy* this time around.
Hopefully this MCL injury isn’t serious, and Curry will be good to go in the playoffs (or, at least by the second round), but it should’ve never come to this.
[NBC Sports Bay Area]
