The Warriors have officially ruled out Steph Curry from Game 5 of their series with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Golden State must stave off elimination without its two-time MVP superstar in a road environment after losing the last three games since he went down with a hamstring injury in Game 1.
The team’s injury report submitted to the NBA on Tuesday afternoon confirmed what Curry and the Warriors had hinted Monday night after their loss to the Wolves in Game 4.
“No, we’re not going to Superman this thing,” Draymond Green said, adding that it’d be up to Curry and sports medicine director Rick Celebrini. “But we don’t need Superman. Play the long game.”
“Even if I wanted to be Superman, I couldn’t,” Curry told Marc Spears of ESPN’s Andscape while adding he doesn’t expect to be available for Game 5.
In his postgame press conference, coach Steve Kerr declined to entertain the idea of Curry returning for Game 5.
The Warriors identified Wednesday as Curry’s re-evaluation date when they first announced his Grade 1 hamstring strain had been confirmed by an MRI a week ago, the morning after he pulled up and clutched at his leg during the second quarter of Game 1.
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Curry has been on the sidelines of each game since, sitting on the bench with his teammates and talking with them during timeouts. But without him on the court, they have been unable to generate much offensive flow without the spacing his style of play affords.
Again, the onus will fall on Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kuminga, the team’s top two scorers since Curry’s injury, to summon enough to force a Game 6 and hope Curry is able to return to the court by Sunday. Butler himself was battling illness on Monday, Green said, as well as a glute contusion he suffered during the first round against the Rockets.
Kuminga, who was out of the rotation before Curry’s injury, provides some direct-line drives for an offense that desperately needs paint penetration, but he does not offer the passing or shooting touch that makes Curry unique.
