A hamstring injury to Stephen Curry cruelled any hope the Golden State Warriors had of overcoming the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second-round of the playoffs, with the franchise losing four-straight games after the 2x MVP went down during the first-half of a Game 1 victory.
There's little doubt that the high intensity nature the Warriors had to play at following the All-Star break certainly played a role in Curry's injury. Now head coach Steve Kerr has placed some of the blame on the NBA's scheduling, though the franchise really only has themselves to blame for the predicament they found themselves in.
The Warriors cost themselves and Stephen Curry a chance to rest
Speaking recently to Tom Haberstroh of Yahoo Sports, Kerr suggested that Curry's injury may not have happened had it not been towards the end of a three-game in five-day span for Golden State.
“If he had an extra day or two...we can’t prove this, but I have no doubt based on our understanding of the scientific literature that the hamstring injury was the result of inadequate recovery and fatigue," Kerr recalled Rick Celebrini saying of Curry's injury.
Kerr is certainly right with what he's saying, but Curry could have been given the extra time to recover if not for the Warriors' lackadaisical nature towards the end of their first-round series against the Houston Rockets.
After taking a decisive 3-1 series lead, Golden State essentially punted Game 5 on the road rather than trying to finish the series as quickly as possible. That gave Houston the momentum to take Game 6 back in the Bay in which Curry played 42 minutes in a losing effort. The Warriors did eventually prevail in Game 7, yet the 37-year-old was forced to play another nearly 46 minutes in the process.
All of a sudden Curry entered the second-round series not only playing significantly more than he may have needed to, but off less than a 48-hour break rather than getting an additional day or two of rest.
Combine that with Golden State needing to play with such high urgency over the last 30 games just to make the playoffs, including going through the Play-In Tournament against the Memphis Grizzlies, and this was always a recipe for disaster.
Does the NBA need to adress their postseason scheduling moving forward? Probably. But at the same time, a veteran team like the Warriors should have done a better job at helping themselves and potentially preventing what was a season-crushing Curry injury.