NBA Lord's NBA Blog

NBA Lord's NBA Blog

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Tomahawk Tuesday: How concerned should the Golden State Warriors be about their injuries?



At 54-20, the Golden State Warriors currently sit 6.5 games back of the top seeded Houston Rockets in the Western Conference standings. While still having a really good regular season, the Warriors are not a slam dunk to come out of the Western Conference for a fourth consecutive season. There are two main reasons for this. The first being that the Rockets are really good. The second being that they are dealing with a lot of injuries. I recently wrote about the Rockets and why they are dangerous, so I will address the latter in this article, focusing on the Warriors’ injury woes.

At the moment, the Warriors’ injury report reads as follows: Stephen Curry is out 3+ weeks due to a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee; Klay Thompson has missed seven games due to a sprained right thumb and is likely out through the rest of the week at least; Draymond Green has missed three games due to a pelvic contusion and is listed as day-to-day; and Kevin Durant has missed six straight games due to a rib fracture, though he is hopeful to return on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks.

While it is certainly possible that the Warriors heal up in time for the playoffs and overcome these injuries, what has to concern them is the sheer number of games that they’ve played over the past few seasons. The hardest part about reaching four straight NBA Finals is overcoming the sheer volume of games that is required to do so. Playing over 100 NBA games in one season takes a tremendous toll on the bodies of these players. To try to do that four times in a row is insane. The Warriors are starting to show signs of breaking down and it seems to be due to all the games that they have played.

The most troublesome injury is definitely Curry’s MCL sprain. He’s out for at least 3 weeks and possibly more pending on how his knee looks upon reevaluation. Given the nature of his injury, it’s no guarantee he returns at all this season and that has to worry the Warriors a great deal. Even if he is able to return, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be able to be close to full strength. Curry is the heart and soul of this Warriors team. Without him, it’s really hard to see the Warriors repeating as NBA champions.


As for how concerned the Warriors should be, if I were going on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being not concerned at all and 10 being full blown panic, I would say their level of concern should be at a 7. Winning a championship is just as much about surviving the grind of an NBA schedule as it is about being the best team. The grind appears to be catching up with the Warriors and with 24+ games to go in the season, their chances of surviving it for another year look dicey.

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