Curry, Thompson Show Well In Team USA Scrimmage, But Paul George First On Everyone’s Mind

This post was supposed to exclusively be about how Warriors Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson performed in Team USA’s intra-squad scrimmage Friday night in Las Vegas.

It was supposed to be a fun, light-hearted post about how Curry and Thompson, the Splash Brothers, were put on different teams and literally guarded each other for a large portion of the night, which was certainly entertaining to watch.

But the entire night was ruined and the showcase turned into a nightmare due to Paul George‘s horrific leg injury, suffered in the fourth quarter when his leg buckled on the stanchion supporting the basket after he tried to disrupt a layup attempt by James Harden. We won’t show it here because a) it’s probably been retweeted onto your timeline a billion times and b) it’s disturbing and we’re better off trying to erase the memory of witnessing such a gruesome injury.

The game was called after that point, as the players were visibly upset and had no intention of continuing. George was taken off the court on a stretcher and the severity of his injury remains uncertain.

“Everything is on hold right now, and it should be,” USA Basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “It would be so inappropriate for us to talk about anything else when there’s a serious injury like this.”

Shaun Livingston, who signed with the Warriors this offseason, experienced and came back from a similar injury that he suffered during a game, and offered his thoughts on Twitter:

Other Warriors were among many players around the league who offered prayers for George:

And this from George:

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Very briefly on Curry and Thompson: Curry finished with nine points, while Thompson had eight. It was fun watching them go at each other — something we rarely see between teammates — but knowing the competitive nature of these guys, they didn’t treat the game lightly. Thompson drew first blood in the first quarter when he hit a turnaround jumper right in Curry’s face, but Curry responded later on by hitting a floater over Thompson, then stripping Thompson of the ball when Klay was getting ready to turn and shoot. Both of them played well, enough to crack the 12-man roster in my mind.

Right now, though, that doesn’t matter. Coach K said it best: everything is onholdright now, and nothing is more important than Paul George’s health. Here is a guy who had a rough end to the season in Indiana, but committed his entire summer to Team USA, striving to get better. He was making the right hustle play as well, chasing down Harden from behind and making him earn the two points from the line by fouling him.

Basketball — just as in life — is cruel and unfair sometimes. Prayers up for Paul George and his family and hope for a speedy recovery.