The Golden State Warriors saw Steph Curry leave Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls with ankle injury. With just under four minutes to go and the Warriors attempting to pull off a comeback against their Eastern Conference foes, Curry got into the paint, planted his right foot, and rolled it awkwardly. He was immediately in pain, made his way into the locker room, and was unable to return to the game.
Steph Curry rolled his ankle and left to the locker room. pic.twitter.com/W18DyiwSbw
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𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕤
✶ (@_MarcusD3_) March 8, 2024
Steph Curry heads to the locker room after apparently rolling his ankle late in the 4th Quarter against the Bulls
(via @DannyEmerman)pic.twitter.com/PolpiJSeGL
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 8, 2024
With Curry’s lengthy history of ankle injuries, any roll of the ankle immediately has the potential for a crisis to break out. On Friday, the two-time NBA MVP went to get imaging done on his ankle to learn the extent of his injury, and Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Curry won’t be sidelined for too terribly long.
ESPN Sources: Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry’s MRI on his right ankle returned clean on Friday and a clearer timeline on his return will come with how ankle responds over next several days. pic.twitter.com/McW6uAqNyt
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 8, 2024
Warriors star Stephen Curry will miss some time – at least a game or few games – with a right ankle sprain but there’s optimism his absence will not be lengthy, sources tell me and @anthonyVslater. pic.twitter.com/Tl2JCDKcOx
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 8, 2024
The expectation is that Curry won’t miss much time for the Warriors, sources said. Golden State is ninth in the Western Conference playoff race. https://t.co/Ai6g4xALUD
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 8, 2024
The good news for the Warriors is that Chris Paul has returned from his own injury issues, and if he slides into the starting lineup in Curry’s absence, that means the team will have an experienced, veteran point guard who can run the show for a bit. Regardless, there is only one Curry, something that Klay Thompson expressed after the game.
“I know we’re going to miss him if he does need time off,” Thompson said, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “We’ve been in this position before where he has had time off, and we just got to do it collectively. I know he’ll be ready to go when he does come back, whenever that is. We just wish him a speedy recovery.”
The Warriors are currently in ninth place in the Western Conference with a 33-29 record. While they should be able to earn at least a berth in the Play-In Tournament — they have a 5.5-game lead on the Utah Jazz with 20 games left on the schedule — any Curry absence could hurt their chances of earning both an automatic bid to the postseason (currently, the team is 3.5 games back of the Phoenix Suns for the 6-seed) or getting into the 7-8 Play-In game (the Dallas Mavericks have a 1.5 game edge for the 8-seed).
The biggest concern with any Curry absence is that Golden State is battling with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 9-seed — they’re ahead due to the fact that they have one fewer loss. While no one wants to play in the 9/10 game, where a loss means you are eliminated from the playoffs, getting to host that game is a major edge, particularly due to the fact that the Lakers are 22-11 at home and 12-19 on the road this season.