Steph Curry will miss his fifth consecutive game with a knee injury for the Golden State Warriors when they host the Spurs on Wednesday, the team's final game before the All-Star break. It will be his 15th missed game this season, so if he misses three more, he won't be eligible for end-of-season awards. He has more of a legitimate reason to return quickly to ensure he makes an All-NBA team than he does to help his team's postseason positioning.
Golden State is 29-25, eighth in the West, three games behind No. 7 Phoenix and three games ahead of No. 10 Portland. They're 3.5 games back from No. 6 Minnesota, which is where the Warriors want to be so that they can avoid the play-in tournament altogether.
You know Curry wants to be on the floor, doing whatever he can to help the Warriors win, but even with him leading the way, Golden State isn't a true contender. This time last year, they were, but with Jimmy Butler done for the season with a torn ACL, they're not going to make a championship run. Maybe they'll get more out of Kristaps Porziņġis than most think, but that's far from a guarantee, and even that wouldn't be enough to go toe-to-toe with top teams in the West.
Will Steph Curry hit the 65-game mark this season to make All-NBA?
The 37-year-old is more focused on winning a fifth championship than he is on making an All-NBA team this season, but that doesn't mean he won't push himself to hit the 65-game mark. The upcoming break will give him extra time to rest and recover, and the hope is that he'll return when the Warriors are back in action on Feb. 19.
Even with his injury, Curry probably has a better chance of not missing more than 17 games this season than Golden State does at winning the title. The league does need to fix that rule, though, as if the soon-to-be 38-year-old pushes himself too much to reach 65 games, he could be low on gas once the postseason starts. In other words, it's a rule that doesn't solve the load management issue, but creates more problems.
Curry deserves to make an All-NBA team, just like he deserves for his team to put himself in the best position possible to win another championship, given the level he's still playing at. The Warriors haven't done that, though.
Maybe Curry has some magic up his sleeve for the playoffs, but this team doesn't have what it takes to be the last team standing, much less make it out of the play-in and past the first round.