SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson hasn’t noticed any significant changes to Stephen Curry’s preparation for the postseason despite him being sidelined with an injury for the rest of the regular season.
“He’s just doing what he’s always done, and it’s working as hard as he can,” Thompson said Tuesday after practice. “The great thing about Steph is you don’t have to worry about him getting the work in, he’s going to do it. So we’ll welcome him with big arms when he comes back because we’re obviously not the same team without.”
Curry sprained a ligament in his left foot in a home loss to the Boston Celtics March 16. There was a hope that he would return for the Warriors’ last few games, though it became clear last week that he would need a little more time before he was game ready.
Curry hasn’t been fully reintegrated back into practice as of Tuesday, coach Steve Kerr said. But he’s making strides, which is fueling the team’s optimism he’ll be ready for Game 1 of the playoffs, which begin April 17.
Though his timeline remains unclear, the Warriors know they need Curry if they want a shot at the title.
Golden State is 5-10 this season without Curry and 3-6 since he went down with his injury. The Warriors are just starting to rediscover their brand of basketball after a tough month of March with three games remaining in the regular season. It helps that Draymond Green, the team’s most vocal leader and best defender, is “rounding the corner” after playing like a lesser version of himself in his first two weeks back from a disc injury.
Luckily for Golden State, Curry has a positive track record in previous returns from injuries around this time of year. And the team doesn’t believe Curry will have an issue picking up where he left off.
“Steph is probably the easiest person to just insert on any team… because [of] how selfless, how amazingly talented he is across the board, and just… the sheer firepower that he brings the gravity that he brings when he’s on the court,” Damion Lee said.
The team’s core of Curry, Thompson and Green are well battle tested, having played together for nearly 10 years and appearing in more than 100 postseason games.
Thompson believes that experience will make Curry’s return near seamless.
“It’s been so long and we’ve done so [much] together, that I think [it’ll be] muscle memory and just playing basketball, it’s a simple game,” Thompson said. “We love to play off each other. So I think it would just be like riding a bike.”
The Warriors are going to have to make adjustments on the fly.
“That’s what it’s going to take because we don’t have any other options,” said coach Steve Kerr, who shares Thompson’s optimism about the core’s experience paying dividends this month. “It is meaningful that Steph Draymond, Klay, Andre [Iguodala and Kevon Looney,] those guys have all been through the battles deep into the playoffs, into the Finals. They’ve been through it together. So that’s really helpful leaning on that experience because they will not have had any practice time together.”
