The left shin contusion which Stephen Curry first suffered last week continues to give him problems. The reigning MVP was forced to leave the Warriors' Tuesday night game against the Lakers in the third quarter after that shin made contact with Lakers center Roy Hibbert's leg. Curry was seen limping afterwards, though he did return to the court in the fourth quarter.
Stephen Curry says he could be hobbled for the next month with a shin injury
A left shin contusion is giving the reigning league MVP some problems.
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
After the game Curry admitted that it could be a month before he’s back to 100 percent.
“A while, like four weeks,” he said to reporters following the Warriors’ 109-88 road win, via ESPN. “I’m not going to sit out four weeks, so just got to figure out how to protect it while I’m out on the floor and keep playing. We’ve done a good amount and just had a couple unlucky plays, and we’ll keep addressing it.”
Curry first suffered the injury in a Dec. 28 contest against the Sacramento Kings. He sat out the Warriors' next two games before returning to the court Saturday against the Nuggets. He re-aggravated the injury in that game and played just 14 minutes, then missed Golden State's shootaround on Monday, but was able to suit up for the team's matchup with the Hornets that night.
“It’s just frustrating and annoying and any other adjective you want to throw in there,” Curry said Tuesday night. “Long-term, it’s not something that I’ll have to worry about. It’s just playing through an injury that’s there. It doesn’t get worse if I play on it, unless I get kicked, and that’s happened three times since I did it, so hopefully it won’t keep happening again.”
“[The shin’s] a magnet,” Curry added later. “But I’ll be all right.”
Curry finished Tuesday night's game with 17 points in 26 minutes. Afterwards interim head coach Luke Walton, whose team is now 33-2, was asked about his decision to re-insert Curry in the fourth quarter.
“I wasn’t going to put him back out at first, but he was pretty adamant about going back out,” Walton said. “I asked the trainers, and they said he’s good, so we put him back out.”
Walton made it clear that he was told that there was no reason Curry couldn’t continue to play.
“If him and the trainers both say he’s good to go then we’ll play him,” Walton said. “If the training staff says to hold him then you take it out of his hands.”
Curry this season is averaging a league-high 29.3 points as well as 6.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game. He’s shooting 51 percent from the field and 45 percent from behind the three-point line.
* * *
SB Nation presents: A healthy Stephen Curry is like a video game
See More:
