Kerr: 'There's no way' Curry will play in 1st round of playoffs
After a three-week timeline provided fans of the Golden State Warriors with a glimmer of hope in seeing Stephen Curry back for the start of the playoffs, head coach Steve Kerr adamantly shut down that idea Sunday.
"There's no way he's playing in the first round," Kerr said of Curry's status, courtesy of Anthony Slater of The Athletic. "There's no way. He's being reevaluated in three weeks so we got to be ready to play without him and then see how he's coming along.
"Good thing is we've been through this. We went through it last year with (Kevin Durant). ... Wasn't exactly the same timeline but it was a similar injury and similar circumstances where we had to play without one of best players and we felt that appropriate fear and turned it up and got it going. And then when KD came back, Finals MVP after missing six weeks.
"There's a lot of similarities here and we should feel good about our ability to play through this stuff. We also know Steph has a history of coming back strong from injuries, so there's a good chance if all goes well and he comes back during the playoffs at some point, we're at full steam. That's the goal and that's our plan."
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Curry sprained the MCL in his left knee in Friday's game against the Atlanta Hawks when his leg bore the weight of falling teammate JaVale McGee in the third quarter. It was his first game back after missing six contests with an ankle injury.
Following an MRI on Saturday, the Warriors announced Curry had been diagnosed with a Grade 2 MCL sprain and would miss at least three weeks before being reevaluated.
Curry, however, is positive he can defy Kerr's muted expectations.
"Based on what I've been told, three weeks is a good kind of benchmark to reevaluate, reassess kind of where I'm at with my progress," the Warriors guard said, courtesy of 95.7 The Game. "Mentally for me, staying positive, staying upbeat, hopefully I prove what coach said was wrong and put myself in a position to get back as soon as possible."