Steph Curry has been dealing with a right thumb injury, but he says it wasn’t the reason for the worst shooting half of his career in the Warriors’ loss to the Lakers on Saturday night.
Curry went 0-for-8 after halftime in the Warriors’ 118-108 defeat, finishing with 13 points and nine assists. In total, he was 4-for-17 on the game and 2-for-9 from 3-point range.
He pointed to the first game after the injury — Jan. 2 against the 76ers — as a reason to believe he can score through the pain and the tape wrapping his thumb and wrist.
“It sucks but it’s not an excuse for anything,” Curry said. “You gotta play through it. I went 8-for-8 with it (against Philadelphia). It’s just something that’s been lingering to the point where it gets hit once in a while. It’s one of those things where it’s almost gone and then and then it gets knocked again. I’ll deal with it but it should bother me like it did tonight.”
The scoreless second half tied the worst shooting half of his career, according to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. Curry credited the Lakers’ defense for stifling him and the Warriors’ attack.
“I just got to play better,” Curry said postgame. “I had a couple of good looks, but they were trying to funnel us into a crowd, use their length, their size. It really bothered us, and any game I play like that, it’s going to be hard for us to win.”
In January, Curry is shooting 45.6 percent overall and 40.8% on 3s, both slightly up from his full-season marks.
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Curry, 36, is also managing tendinitis in both knees, which first appeared on the Warriors’ injury report in November and kept from playing back-to-back games until this week’s set at Sacramento and against the Bulls.
“It’s trending in the right direction,” Curry said of his knee pain. “It’s still something you got to stick with the maintenance and all that type of stuff.”
The Warriors have no game until Tuesday, but they’ll then play another back-to-back set against the Thunder and Jazz. They have three pairs of back-to-back games between now and the All-Star break. Curry may not get much time to rest the injury then, either, as he was named an All-Star starter on Thursday and the Warriors are hosting festivities.
