Someone sound the “Stephen Curry is on his way back” alarm.
In roughly four to six days.
Curry has missed all but two of the Golden State Warriors’ playoff tilts, including the last three, all of which were wins. But he could be returning from his sprained left knee soon.
How soon?
Very soon.
Per Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group:
Warriors general manager Bob Myers expects Stephen Curry to return from a sprained knee “somewhere around” the team’s two-week timetable, but said Tuesday doesn’t know for sure.
“I don’t know that it’ll be before,” Myers told 95.7 The Game. “It might be after.”
“I know everybody wants to know is it going to be Saturday, is it going to be Monday? It’s in that range, but it’s hard to say. But those games (3 and 4) are so close together.
With a 2-0 Western Conference semifinals series lead over the Portland Trail Blazers, the Warriors, really, don’t need Curry to return right now. They can get through to the Western Conference Finals without him.
But while resting him that long is certainly an option, both the Warriors and Curry have to consider the prospect of rust. They won’t want him going through the motions against the Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs, with an NBA Finals bid on the line. The sooner they get him back, the more prepared, the more ready, he’ll be.
This, quite obviously, isn’t a license for Curry to rush back. The Warriors are smarter than that. They understand the importance of the big picture. They will only let Curry return when he’s actually ready. That they seem ready to let him loose in Game 3 or 4, then, is supremely encouraging. It means that he’s almost actually ready, which is bad news not only for the upstart Blazers, but each of the six other remaining playoff factions.
