Golden State’s Playoff Chances Take a Hit, Steph Curry Out With A Broken Hand

By Jordan Long

The defending Western Conference champions, Golden State Warriors, stand at 1-3.  They are missing Klay Thompson, who won’t be back until late in the year at the earliest.  Thompson is recovering from a torn ACL which occurred during the NBA Finals.  They have yet another major injury which could derail their season, Steph Curry.  He is out with a broken hand and there is no timetable yet for his return.

                Curry is Golden State’s top player.  He is their point guard and sets up plays.  Curry can shoot from anywhere on the court to make a basket or find his teammates for them to score.  He was off to a pretty good start this season averaging 20.3 points and 6.5 assists per game. 

                Curry isn’t the reason why Golden State is off to a poor start to the year.  He doesn’t have a lot of help since Thompson is out.   D’Angelo Russell, who they hoped was going to help the offense, is scoring 16.3 points per game.  Draymond Green averages 10.3 points per game.  That is a lot of pressure on Curry to make baskets to keep this team in basketball games.

                In last night’s game, Curry scored 9 points before he was injured.  The injury occurred with 8 minutes and 31 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.  Curry was trying to drive to the rim to score and crashed into Aron Baynes who was playing defense.  Curry went down and so did Baynes who landed on Curry’s hand.  Curry left the game and didn’t return.  At the time the Suns were ahead 83-54 and would go on to win 121-110.    

                According to ESPN.com, Head Coach Steve Kerr said, “Obviously it’s been a tough start for us on many levels. So we’re just trying to find our footing. And obviously this puts us in a tough spot. So we’ll assess it, and we’ll go from there.”

                The Warriors are going to need to replace a large part of their offense.  It is going to be difficult to do so.  Russell will move to the point guard position and dictate the offense.   If Russell plays poorly at that position, Head Coach Steve Kerr may need to look at his depth which could be rookie Ky Bowman.   Golden State knows this is a major injury and it might lead them to missing the playoffs for the 1^st time since 2012.