Late in Thursday’s game with the Bulls, Warriors fans heard their five least favorite words: “Steph Curry rolls his ankle.”
Curry turned his ankle on a cut to the basket with four minutes left and his team leading 112-109. He limped off the court and into the locker room, and the Bulls completed a comeback from 13 points down to win 125-122.
The injury came just a day after Golden State had its first clean injury report in over three months. Andrew Wiggins returned from his absence for a personal matter, while Chris Paul and Gary Payton II returned from injuries that cost them sizable time.
Given how Curry was limping, it’s likely he’ll be on the injury report when the Warriors play the Spurs in their next two games. San Antonio had its own star, Victor Wembanyama, go down with an ankle injury Wednesday night. He’s likely to miss Sunday’s Warriors game. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said the team was hoping he could return for the second game of their back-to-back.
Curry has regularly suffered injuries to his ankles, especially early in his career. He had surgical procedures on his problem ankles after his second and third seasons, the latter of which cost him three to four months but dramatically improved the health of his ankles.
But ankle injuries are always threatening to sideline the Warriors’ most important player. Golden State had won 11 of its last 15 games but remained deep in the play-in group. A tough road for playoff seeding just got tougher, if the greatest shooter ever misses serious time.
