Steph tripped at the end of the third quarter and looked to be in considerable pain pic.twitter.com/lqpuViLdU1
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 18, 2021
Wednesday night was supposed to be a “get right” game for the Warriors. Matched up against a Houston Rockets (11-28) team without both John Wall and Victor Oladipo, riding a 17-game losing streak, the contest was predictably a cake walk for three quarters. Then Stephen Curry got hurt.
After launching the final shot of the third quarter, Curry stumbled backwards towards the alley between the Rockets bench and scorer’s table, only to trip over the stairs and onto his tailbone, causing the two-time MVP to wince in considerable pain. Curry would eventually get to his feet and leave the court under his own power. He would not return.
The Warriors officially called the injury a tailbone contusion, which likely means that Curry will avoid any sort of long-term absence, depending on the severity. At most, a bad bruise could take four weeks to recover, though professional athletes tend to recover much quicker. A fracture would’ve been a serious issue, one that can take up to 12 weeks to heal.
For now the Warriors (21-20) will try to wait and focus on the positives, of which there was one big one in Golden State’s 108-94 win. Again it was Jordan Poole, who continued to be a revelation in his fourth game since being called up from the G League bubble.
Poole led the Warriors with a career-high 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting and 6-of-11 from three. The Warriors outscored the Rockets by 19 when Poole was on the floor, the best plus-minus of any Golden State player.
Poole’s most impressive stretch came during the second quarter, when he scored 15 points in 12 minutes, the fourth time he’s scored double-digits in a quarter in his past five games.
Signs of an emerging burst bench scorer: Jordan Poole scored 15 second quarter points tonight. He's scored double digit points in a single quarter in four out of the past five games. pic.twitter.com/x4ARCdoCRi
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 18, 2021
On a night in which the Warriors lost two bench pieces — James Wiseman and Eric Paschall will probably be out for a week due to contact tracing — their confidence that they have found maybe their most important bench piece moving forward only solidfied.
The absence of Wiseman and Paschall has created a new problem, however, that was immediately apparent against super talented Rockets center Christian Wood (21 points, nine rebouds) on Wednesday. The Warriors don’t have a playable center beyond Draymond Green (16 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists), considering Kevon Looney is looking like he’s about to be on his way out of the starting lineup. In a game which the Warriors won by 14, Looney was somehow a -7 in 23 minutes, the only player with a negative plus-minus.
Juan Toscano-Anderson wasn’t great either, he didn’t score in 13 minutes, but he may be a better option moving forward while the young bigs remain out.
Up next is a back-to-back series vs. the Grizzlies in Memphis. The Grizzlies (17-19) sit in the 10th spot in the West, one spot, and 1.5 games below the Warriors.