Before Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry took the floor at the Toyota Center on Sunday, a song played inside the Houston Rockets’ arena that said everything about the modern-day magnitude of the reigning MVP’s reach.
It would still be hours until Curry’s second-quarter slip would leave the Warriors wondering if their title defense was slipping away, and “I’m the Plug,” by rappers Drake and Future, was booming in the arena. Even in enemy territory, in this Rockets’ house where Curry would eventually leave the court limping with eyes full of tears, they saw it fit to play a tune that includes a shout-out to Steph Curry and his history-making wrists.
A Warriors official on hand chuckled at the counter-intuitive nature of the moment. In any setting, it seemed, there was just no stopping the Curry mania that had enveloped the NBA all season long.
And then, when Curry’s legs twisted like a Gumby doll and his right knee hit the floor so hard on that fluke play just before halftime, that’s exactly what happened.
The question now: How in the name of all things Curry will Golden State plug this kind of gaping hole in their lineup?
The Warriors learned on Monday that they will be without Curry for at least two weeks because of a Grade 1 MCL sprain, but the true impact of his absence might have all the reach of a Billboard top 10 hit. From San Antonio to Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Los Angeles and beyond, the reality that Curry won’t be part of the Warriors’ championship equation for the foreseeable future means everyone else’s odds just went up.
This was fast becoming Curry’s NBA, the Warriors winning in ways we had never seen and the rest of the league being left behind. The Kawhi Leonard-led Spurs had been phenomenal in winning a franchise-record 67 games, but losing twice to the Warriors late in the regular season seemed to take the sexiness out of that subplot.
LeBron James, who so many predicated during the summer would lead his Cavaliers to a first-ever title in Cleveland, seemed at times to be farther away from that goal this season than he was during the Finals loss last June. The list went on from there: the Thunder’s Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the Clippers’ Chris Paul & Co. All of these stars who are aware how a title can impact a legacy, it seemed, would be hard-pressed to pass this deep and dominant Golden State bunch.
Even if the best-case scenario unfolds for the Warriors, with Curry returning late in a second-round series against either the Clippers or the Portland Trail Blazers, there’s a very real possibility that when he returns, he won’t look anything like the hoops magician we’ve come to know. And the Warriors, with their 73-win season campaign already fading into the rearview mirror, will have to unleash quite the effort to even set the stage for a comeback.
It can be done, though. That’s the luxury of having a roster like this one, with the game’s second-best shooter, guard Klay Thompson, always ready for a scoring spike. And players like Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Harrison Barnes who can do more but often don’t because their roles – in the context of Curry – don’t call for it. Draymond Green will be the ultimate X-factor, not only because of his fiery ways but because his versatile skillset – the playmaking, the scoring, the defending – will be needed more than ever.
It starts with the possible closeout game against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors (who are up 3-1) will still be seen as the favorites if only because the Rockets’ effort was so shameful in Game 4. To steal a phrase from the Spurs’ legendary coach, Gregg Popovich, they’ll have to pound the rock from there. Considering all the grief the Warriors took for having good health leading to their title in 2015, when teams like the Memphis Grizzlies and the Cavs endured so many injuries that made the masses wonder if the Warriors would have won it without that good fortune, it would make for quite a tale.
Heck, maybe they’d even write a song about it.
