Kerr: Curry, Thompson questionable for Game 1
OAKLAND, Calif. — Golden State Warriors All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are “questionable” for Sunday’s Game 1 against the Houston Rockets in the NBA’s Western Conference semifinals because of right ankle injuries, according to Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
“He’s OK,” Kerr said Saturday of Thompson. “He and Steph both came in this morning to get some treatment. And I haven’t even spoken with [Warriors director of sports medicine and performance] Rick [Celebrini] yet today so we’re upstairs watching film and getting ready. We’ll see how they’re doing [Sunday]. I’m not going to make a definitive statement on whether they’ll both play — let’s just call it questionable. And there’s nothing implied there; they both came in today and got some work, and we’ll see how they’re doing [Sunday].”
Curry turned his right ankle toward the end of the first quarter of Friday’s series-clinching victory over the LA Clippers. He went to the Warriors’ locker room to get it checked out before checking back into that Game 6, but he was limping as he walked into the postgame news conference. Kerr acknowledged that Thompson’s sprain, which came in the third quarter Friday night, was more severe than initially thought.
“It was a significant sprain,” Kerr said. “He was limping last night. So as I said, we’ll see how he’s doing [Sunday].”
Thompson was also limping as he left Staples Center on Friday night and admitted that the ankle was “sore,” but he said he was confident he would be ready for Game 1 of the Rockets series.
“I anticipate going fully on Sunday so it’ll be all right,” Thompson said immediately after the game.
For his part, Kerr isn’t concerned about his team’s focus or energy heading into Game 1. The Warriors wish they could have taken care of business sooner in the first round, but Kerr believes his team is more prepared for the Rockets series because it had to grind through a tough Clippers squad.
“I think they’re more energized that we’re here,” Kerr said of his team. “I think we are happy to get past the Clippers; they were fantastic. They prepared us well for this series. I’m not worried about the energy because here we are, it’s the playoffs and no matter what we do, at max there’s six weeks left in the season. At minimum there’s a couple weeks, so we’re near the finish line. So our guys are going to have plenty of motivation, plenty of energy. I’m more worried about the nagging injuries right now from [Friday] night, so we’ll see what happens.”