Stephen Curry has missed 15 games due to patella-femoral pain syndrome/bone bruising — commonly called runner's knee — and in that stretch the Warriors have gone 5-10 and slid to ninth in the Western Conference. Golden State needs its best player back.
That's not happening for another 10 days, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania and Anthony Slater. That means Curry will miss at least another five games and return — at the earliest — with a dozen games left in the season. The next five games Curry will miss are mostly tough ones, including at New York on Sunday as part of NBC's Sunday Night Basketball broadcast.
It's not just Curry who is out, Jimmy Butler is done for the season after tearing his ACL, leaving the Warriors struggling for consistent shot creation during this stretch.
Curry, 37, still looks elite when he does get on the court, averaging 27.2 points and 4.8 assists a game, shooting 39.1% from 3-point range. His gravity to draw defenders is still what makes Golden State's offense work, and without him things get stuck in the mud.
Which is what Warriors fans are going to see for another five games, at least.