Stephen Curry’s sprained right ankle is feeling better but he isn’t sure if he will be able to play on Thursday night in Game 3 of Golden State’s first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets.
Curry talked about his health after practicing on Wednesday when the team arrived in Houston.
“Based on how I feel right now I probably couldn’t play,” he said. “But tomorrow it could be different.”
Curry missed Game 2 after he was hurt in the opener of the series. The Warriors overcame his absence to get a 115-106 victory and take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Last season’s MVP said he doesn’t feel like he could play right now because he isn’t able to “go full speed, or game speed, I should say and have confidence in the moves I need to do.”
Golden State coach Steve Kerr was encouraged by how Curry looked on Wednesday.
“You couldn’t see anything today as far as a limp,” he said. “So he’s doing a lot better.”
Curry, who led the NBA with 402 3-pointers in the regular season, made 3 after 3 on Wednesday in the portion of practice that reporters were able to view, but insisted he didn’t look as good early in the workout.
“Y’all got here late,” he said. “I missed (some) … obviously I want to be healthy and not put myself in danger of having this linger or having problems down the stretch, but you want to keep the rhythm and momentum that we’ve built and not get rusty. So hopefully we can accomplish both.”
Kerr is also concerned with that balance.
“It’s funny because people say: ‘Just give him like two weeks off his ankle will be fine,'” Kerr said with a laugh. “Yeah, but what about his shooting arm? What about his handle? Players want to play. So there’s always a rest versus rhythm equation in there somewhere that we have to factor in.”
Curry said it’s not just that he isn’t able to do all the things he normally can on the court right now, but that there is some pain that accompanies his injury.
“There’s a certain threshold of soreness that you can deal with, and if it kind of rolls into pain where things shut down if you get into a certain position or whatnot, that’s what I want to avoid,” he said.
Curry, whose 30.1 points per game in the regular season led the NBA, was impressed by the way his teammates stepped up with him sitting out in Game 2. Even though he has confidence that his teammates could perform like that again, he’s itching to get back on the court.
“It’s obviously a good safety net to know that we have such a deep, talented team that all those guys are capable of going out there and winning a playoff game and doing their job,” he said. “It’s a good thought to have, but I want to assess where I am based solely on (health). Not try to look at the circumstances.”