SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry left in the final minute of a 104-100 home loss to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night, hobbling to the locker room with what the team called a right quad contusion.
Curry will have an MRI to determine the extent of the injury.
“When I heard it was a quad, I was actually relieved,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Better than an ankle or a knee.”
Curry came up limping after a series of fourth-quarter collisions. He attempted to take a charge on Rockets guard Amen Thompson with 3:24 left and was bulled over with an elbow. After review, Curry was called for a blocking foul.
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Two possessions later, Curry drove into the lane for his own crashing layup attempt and was called for a charge. Kerr challenged the call, and it wasn’t overturned. In the aftermath, Curry moved around gingerly for the next couple of minutes in obvious pain.
During a timeout with 35.2 seconds left and the Warriors down five, Curry had a conversation with Rick Celebrini, the team’s lead medical decision-maker, who waved to the bench that Curry was done for the night. The two then departed for the locker room.
“If Steph has to miss [time]?” Kerr said. “It obviously changes everything — our rotations, how we’re playing, who we are playing through. We’ll see.”
Curry’s injury comes at a shaky time for the Warriors. Wednesday night’s loss dropped them to 10-10 through 20 games after a 4-1 start. In the aftermath, both Jimmy Butler III and Draymond Green were critical of the team’s recent defensive effort.
“We don’t box out,” Butler said. “We don’t go with the scouting report. We let anybody do whatever they want — open shots, get into the paint, free throws. It’s just sad.”
The Rockets made only 39 of their 99 shots against the Warriors, but they grabbed 25 offensive rebounds, punishing Golden State with superior size and physicality. Houston outscored the Warriors by 16 points in the second half.
“Our defense is s—,” Green said.
The Warriors actually have a respectable defensive rating of 112.2 through 20 games, ranking 10th out of 30 teams. They’ve been worse offensively, with a 113.2 rating, which ranks 22nd.
“It’s not necessarily the numbers,” Green said. “How do you feel when you out there? It’s just letdown after letdown. It’s bigger than the numbers. Defense is about demeanor. If there’s letdown, it kills your demeanor, it kills your bravado. Then you’re just a soft team.”
Green and Butler have been critical of the team’s play after a few of their recent losses, including Green’s call-out of individual agendas following a blowout loss in Oklahoma City. Green wanted to make sure after Wednesday’s loss that he was grouping everyone.
“We are individually — I know everyone likes to twist words — I said we are individually f—ing awful,” Green said.
Butler called it “front-running.”
“A lot of our hustle is dictated upon our offense,” Butler said. “When we’re making shots, oh, man, we’re celebrating, we’re cheering, doing all those things. When we’re not, when the game’s not going our way, we put our head down and we mope and we don’t box out, and we don’t get back. We foul. We do all the bad things.”
Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga appears to be close to returning. He scrimmaged Wednesday afternoon and told ESPN that he was aiming to be back for Saturday’s home game against the New Orleans Pelicans. But, pending the MRI results, it’s possible the Warriors will be without Curry.
“We’re going to have to be damn near perfect [without Curry],” Butler said. “We aren’t going to have the ultimate bailout on our team.”
