INDIANAPOLIS — About 30 minutes after the Warriors fell to 2-13 on the road, Stephen Curry sat in his locker in Indianapolis with his left arm dangling at his side in a motionless position. The training staff wrapped a huge ice pack around the top and back of his injured shoulder. An already uncomfortable state of affairs for the Golden State Warriors had hit an even bigger piece of turbulence.
Curry had 38 points on 19 shots late in the third quarter against the Indiana Pacers, expending so much energy that he delayed his return to the locker room at halftime to catch his breath. He scored 27 points, but his team lost 20.
Steph Curry’s delayed walk to the locker room at halftime after scoring 27 but still leading the Pacers by 20 pic.twitter.com/bjbg3rqQbj
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 15, 2022
Curry was part of a quick third-quarter comeback. The Warriors started Jonathan Kuminga in place of Kevon Looney, switching to a smaller, faster and more spread offense that cut the Pacers’ lead from 20 to five in less than six minutes. Curry was 11 in the quarter and 38 for the game when he came up on a Jalen Smith drive, taking the entire ball as he inadvertently sent this Warriors season on yet another incomplete detour.
This is the play where Steph Curry came out clutching his left shoulder. He’s still in the locker room because the fourth quarter is starting. pic.twitter.com/NDKEbHfuho
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 15, 2022
Curry felt an immediate pain in his left shoulder. He clung to it, crumpled away from the play, tripped over the scorer’s table and eventually the bench after the Warriors called a timeout. After a brief conversation with Drew Yoder, the team’s director of medical services, confirmed the troubling discomfort, Curry went to the locker room with Rick Celebrini, his chief medical decision-maker.
Here is that moment.
Steph Curry in the locker room during the timeout favoring that left arm. pic.twitter.com/zZtpjFe8Kt
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 15, 2022
In this clip, you can see Curry holding his left arm still. It still hung like that after the game as Curry wandered around the locker room, before and after icing it. He is scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday and plans to travel with the team to Philadelphia. Tests will give them a firmer idea of a possible timeline, but the post-game feeling from those around the team was that the injury would force some kind of multi-game absence that would presumably stretch for the rest of the season. of the road trip.
“It might be a little bit more difficult if Steph is out for a while,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I mean, if he’s out, it’s definitely going to be harder. But we’ve just got to persevere. Just keep playing and keep fighting.”
It wasn’t a dejected post-game locker room. Besides the added discomfort and treatment, Curry was in a normal mood. Assuming tests don’t reveal more significant damage than initially expected, this could just be a speed bump. But the 14-15 Warriors were already facing a stiff challenge before their best player went down. The short term just got a lot more complicated.
so what happens
This will be an important stretch for Jordan Poole
When Curry went down in March with a sprained foot, Jordan Poole stepped up to a whole different level. He led the NBA in 3s made in March and April, averaging 24.7 points on 47.3 percent overall and 41.9 percent from deep.
The Warriors don’t necessarily need him to reach that zenith, but they will need Poole to be more efficient and protective of the ball than he has been of late. Poole shot 8-for-22 and committed four turnovers against the Pacers. He was 6-for-17 with four turnovers to open the trip to Milwaukee. He’s made just five of his last 23 3-pointers.
“The biggest thing with Jordan that we’ve tried to work on is slowing down,” Kerr said. “He’s just in a hurry. He’s got so much ability. I think sometimes it’s the guys with the most skill when they’re young that make the most mistakes because they’re trying to learn what they can and can’t do. He’s so gifted, so quick, so capricious that he often gets in trouble.”
Do we see more of Moses Moody?
Despite the absence of Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson, the Warriors didn’t go to Moses Moody for the first 18 minutes against the Pacers. Kerr had two-way player Ty Jerome ahead of Moody in the starting rotation.
But the Warriors struggled together with Jerome, Anthony Lamb and JaMychal Green on the court. They were a minus-17 in Jerome’s first nine minutes. That prompted Kerr to throw Moody out there. He hit a corner 3 and snuck in a layup in his first few minutes on the court. Down 20 at halftime, Kerr reshuffled his third quarter rotation and Moody was the first substitute off the bench.
Moody finished with 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting, three assists and other helpful plays inside the rim. Both Moody and Kuminga, who started the second half, were key in keeping the game competitive, almost stealing a late win. Green and Donte DiVincenzo also played a big role.
“I was very pleased with his game,” Kerr said when asked if Moody had won more runs. “He has his opportunities and has made the most of them. Every game is different. What’s made it difficult this year is that you’ve had different guys, different combinations and a lot of new people. So we are trying to find the right combinations. But Moisès has done a great job and I imagine it will be the next game.”
Steve Kerr in tonight’s rotation and Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody’s second half game pic.twitter.com/o0miyTV2Kp
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 15, 2022
Thompson will return Friday against the Sixers. Wiggins will be re-evaluated on Thursday and his return is pending. So it might be hard to find Moody a ton of minutes on the wing, but it’s hard to imagine him not earning a higher spot in the pecking order than Jerome.
So what’s rotation without curry?
If Wiggins can return early, it would be a starting lineup of Poole, Thompson, Wiggins, Draymond Green and Looney. Kuminga continues to push his way into a bigger piece of the rotation pie, and Kerr showed Wednesday that Kuminga is an option for starters if they decide on a faster style and a different look.
After Kuminga, DiVincenzo emerges as the most reliable option off the bench. He started in place of Thompson on Wednesday night and had 15 points and eight rebounds, making a pair of crucial 3s to keep the Warriors close. They were a plus-19 in DiVincenzo’s 38 minutes and a minus-24 in his 10 minutes on the bench.
“My focus is not on the offensive end,” he said. “It comes to me But when I put pressure on the edge, good things happen. When I can get down, I can get shots off other people, the defense crashes and the ball can find me again. When you play basketball the right way, and it’s the right way, in my opinion, driving, kicking and swinging, all that movement, that’s when guys get good shots.”
He has also become one of the quiet leaders in the dressing room.
“We needed more energy,” DiVincenzo said. “When things don’t go our way, when the calls don’t go our way, there’s a standard game for the Golden State Warriors. I think the biggest message is we’ve got to play like bad warriors. That’s the biggest thing. We have to have that energy.”
What does the schedule look like?
The Warriors, who are 2-13 on the road, finish their longest road trip of the season with these four games: at the Sixers, Raptors, Knicks and Nets. These last two run next week, Tuesday and Wednesday. They then have an extended break before starting an eight-game homestand on Christmas against the Grizzlies.
(Photo of Steph Curry clutching his shoulder in the second half Wednesday night against the Pacers: Trevor Ruszkowski/USA Today)