What we learned as Steph’s injury casts shadow on Warriors’ win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – While the Warriors outlasted the undermanned Toronto Raptors for a 117-114 win Thursday night at Chase Center, the final score was secondary.
Steph Curry in the third quarter took a hard fall and later was ruled out with a pelvic contusion.
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Curry before leaving the game scored 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting and made two 3-pointers. The Raptors did everything they could to make anybody else on the Warriors beat them.
Challenge accepted. Most of all by Draymond Green, who scored a team-high 21 points, which is his second-most this season. The combination of Green and Jimmy Butler carried the Warriors to victory down the stretch.
Butler recorded his second triple-double since joining the Warriors with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists. His best play of the night, however, came on defense. Jamal Shead had a chance to make it a one-point game with 20 seconds remaining, but Butler had other plans.
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Not to be forgotten, rookie center Quinten Post scored 18 points off the bench, going 6 of 9 from 3-point range. Jonathan Kuminga also was a major scoring punch off the bench, scoring 18 points. Plus, Brandin Podziemski had 15 points in his second game returning from a back injury.
The Warriors will take the results of a win, but now the real news awaits.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors completing a 6-1 seven-game homestand.
Draymond Lets It Fly
The way Green completely shut down Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Warriors’ win Tuesday night gave coach Steve Kerr every reason to call him “the best defender I’ve ever seen.” Two nights later, Green began the win as an offensive threat.
As it always has, though, everything starts with Curry. The Raptors heavily top-locked Curry from the jump for all 94 feet, and Green quickly adjusted. First, because of the way nobody wants to leave Curry, the Warriors used an inverted pick-and-roll for a wide-open lane to let Green throw down a dunk. Later in the first quarter, the two used their synergy to execute their pick-and-roll closer to the basket, making Green’s man leave him and leading to a layup.
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In the second quarter, four seconds after checking back into the game, Green found Curry cutting behind Toronto’s defense with a perfect bounce pass for two points. How did Curry make his first three of the second half? By rubbing off a strong screen set by Green. He wound up assisting Curry on three of his six made shots.
The Raptors paid no attention to Green as a scorer, and he made them pay for it. He had 10 points in the first quarter and 18 going into halftime, including four 3-pointers. Green’s 18 points were his third-most ever for a half, and the five threes he wound up with tied a season-high.
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Raptors’ Anybody-But-Steph Strategy
Though the Warriors only held a six-point lead through the first half, four of their players already had scored in double figures. Green’s 18 points led all scorers. He wasn’t alone.
Kuminga gave Golden State 14 first-half points off the bench. Podziemski was right behind with 13, and Post drained four threes off the bench for 12 points going into the second half.
Curry, however, was held to seven points. So in a sense, the Raptors’ strategy somewhat worked.
But Curry then scored 10 of the Warriors’ first 16 points in the third quarter before exiting to an injury. The Warriors responded by going on a 10-4 run to close the quarter to hold a 93-92 lead going into the fourth.
A total of six Warriors scored in double figures. From the time of Curry’s injury to the end of the game, the Warriors outscored the Raptors by eight points, 34-26.
Steph’s Scary Injury
All of Chase Center fell silent with a little more than three minutes left in the third quarter. A pin drop could be heard echoing off the court. That’s what happens when Curry goes down.
Curry drove to the basket and was hammered by two Raptors as he delivered a pass across his body from the paint to the left corner. He bounced off the court, immediately lifted his back and began grabbing at his tailbone area. For what felt like an eternity, Curry stayed down on the ground and was tended to by assistant athletic trainer Drew Yoder.
On his own power, Curry walked to the Warriors’ bench before being joined by director of sports medicine and performance Rick Celebrini down the tunnel and back to the locker room.
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Early into the fourth quarter, the Warriors ruled Curry out because of a pelvic contusion. He was listed as questionable two games ago with lower back soreness, which first occurred during pregame warmups one week ago against the Sacramento Kings. Curry then was given rest last game, the first one he didn’t suit up for in nearly two months.
The Warriors on Saturday begin a six-game road trip starting in Atlanta against the Hawks. They’re 5-3 in eight games without Curry this season.
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