The Golden State Warriors’ fairytale start to the season got a dose of reality on Wednesday when Stephen Curry suffered what appears to be an injury to his abdomen/oblique area in a loss to the Rockets.
The injury happened halfway through the first quarter. You can see Curry get tangled up with Alperen Sengun and grab at his side after they seperate.
Moments later, Curry hit his lone 3-pointer of the game and could once again be seen grabbing at his side after the shot.
Curry exited the game at the next dead ball and didn’t return. Steve Kerr confirmed that Curry went for an MRI and said the team is awaiting results.
“He said he tweaked something in his abdominal area,” Kerr said. “He said he’s never done it before. … Concern is high, but I have no idea the extent of the injury.”
For what it’s worth, Dr. Brian Suttererwho does a great job with instantly analyzing sports injuries, pegged the potential recovery time for something like this anywhere from two to six weeks.
Obviously Suttrerer is speaking in generalities and this is a matter of severity, but you can get an idea of the possible range of recovery times for this sort of injury over the past three seasons.
|
Player |
Injury |
Time missed |
|---|---|---|
|
Austin Reaves (2026) |
Oblique strain |
25 days |
|
Joel Embiid (2026) |
Oblique strain |
25 days |
|
Tari Eason (2025) |
Oblique strain |
37 days |
|
Bilal Coulibaly (2025) |
Oblique strain |
15 days |
|
Desmond Bane (2024) |
Oblique strain |
16 days |
|
Jose Alvarado (2024) |
Oblique strain |
10 days |
|
Dillon Brooks (2024) |
Oblique strain |
17 days |
These are all strains, which is code for minor tear, but the worst-cast scenario would be a more severe tear. We saw this two yesrs who when the Magic lost both Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero to oblique tears that kept Banchero out for 10 weeks and Wagner for more than a month.
Anything like that would be disastrous for the Warriors, who are not equipped to cover for any Curry injury, let alone an extended one. Curry has gotten off to a scorching start, entering Wendesday averaging 30.1 PPG on 50.3/45.7/98.7 shooting splits with Golden State winning eight straight games for the first time since the 2022 championship season.
But this was always a fingers-crossed situation with an aging roster. Already down Jimmy Butler and Kristaps Porziņģis, and with Brandon Williams and Gary Payton II also on the shelf and wing Will Richard playing through a ligament tear in his thumb, the Warriors have little, if any, margin for any more injuries.
This comes at a particularly tough time for the Warriors, who are entering their most difficult schedule stretch so far. On Friday they’ll visit San Antonio, and then Dallas and New Orleans on a back-to-back.
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The Warriors have opened up at 8-4 with a top-three offense, but that can go south very quickly if Curry is going to be sidelined for any length of time. At this point, all they can do is hold their breath that it’s just a minor tweak that will cost him as little time as possible.