The Golden State Warriors won 106-94, with Stephen Curry scoring 29 points and Nick Young with 24, but Curry left the game with a left knee sprain.
Playing in the third quarter against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, Golden State Warriors center Javale McGee jumped, going for a pump fake, losing his balance on the way down.
As he came down, he landed on the left knee of Stephen Curry, who was playing in his first game back after a slight ankle tweak that sidelined him for a couple of weeks.
The arena, as you can imagine, went silent. Not again. He just came back. The Warriors were already without their other three all stars in Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson. Curry, up to that point, had 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including 3-of-8 from beyond the arc.
Here’s a video of the injury:
Stephen Curry left the game limping tonight after JaVale McGee rolled up on his left leg/ankle.... pic.twitter.com/z1RSElOtGi
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) March 24, 2018
(via @DefPenHoops)
He had help, too: shooting guard Nick Young had 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting, including 6-of-11 from beyond the arc. Rookie Jordan Bell had 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Backup guard Quinn Cook continued his string of strong performances over the past few games with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting, eight rebounds and six assists.
Taurean Prince led five Hawks in double figures with 20 points. Dennis Schroder had 16 points on 8-of-17 shooting. Bell’s former teammate at Oregon, Tyler Dorsey had 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Mike Muscala had 11 points and guard Damion Lee had 10 points for Atlanta.
There have been comparisons about Curry’s left knee injury to Durant’s knee injury from last year in Washington when Zaza Pachulia got thrown into Durant by Marcin Gortat.
Here's the play that Pachulia fell back into Durant's left knee pic.twitter.com/1E7eOULNnc
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 1, 2017
(via @anthonyVslater)
The two plays look almost identical, but if you look at it closely, Durant’s leg was locked. Curry’s leg was bent just slightly. Additionally, Curry was able to walk off under his own power. However, we won’t know for another 12 hours or so.
The Warriors have to hold their collective breath that Curry’s left MCL sprain is just a Grade 1, which he would be out for a couple of weeks.
Next: Ranking the top-20 draft picks in Warriors history
The playoffs roll around in three weeks, so it would be smart for head coach Steve Kerr to rest all of the players he can to gear up for another championship push.