Will the Warriors’ lone 2023 All-Star be on the floor Thursday?
Tomorrow night, your 27-32 Los Angeles Lakers will hope to snag a critical win against another current play-in tournament hopeful, the 29-29 Golden State Warriors.
The Dubs will still be without their best player, nine-time All-Star point guard Stephen Curry, who has been sidelined since February 5th with a lower left leg contusion and partially torn interosseous membrane and superior tibiofibular ligaments.
According to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, Golden State has revealed that Curry is on the mend, and the team will reassess his leg one week from now.
Curry is not the only Warriors starter set to miss Thursday’s action. Starting small forward Andrew Wiggins, one of the club’s best two-way threats, was away from the team during a recent practice and seems likely to remain unavailable for the Dubs.
When he has played, the four-time champ, two-time league MVP and 2022 NBA Finals MVP has been his typically terrific self. Through 38 healthy games in 2022-23, the 34-year-old is averaging 29.4 points on .495/.427/.922 shooting splits (i.e. he could notch his second-ever 50/40/90 season), 6.4 assists, 6.3 rebounds, and a steal. This season, the Warriors have lost significant rotation depth after winning their fourth title during the Curry era, and have gone from being the Western Conference’s 53-29 third seed with the best defensive rating in the NBA and a weirdly mediocre offensive rating (112.5, which was 17th last season) to a .500 team with a +0.1 net rating, good for just 18th in the league.
Point being: with or without Stephen Curry, this is not the same enemy-flattening Golden State team it was last year.
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