The Golden State Warriors took a 3-1 lead over the Houston Rockets in their first round playoff series on Sunday, but they aren't exactly celebrating. Stephen Curry had to leave the game early after injuring his knee, and the entire team and fan base was forced to hold their breath for the rest of the game.
Curry never did return to the game and has been dealing with injury issues throughout the entire postseason so far. The soon-to-be two-time MVP missed games two and three with an ankle injury but returned for game four. This injury is new, and now Curry's status for the remainder of the postseason is up in the air.
Curry was seen limping around after the game, and the Warriors plan to give him an MRI on Monday to figure out how severe the injury is. For what it's worth, Curry wanted to get back in this game, which is a good sign, but it is impossible to know just when to expect him back until the MRI results come back.
Early reports suggest that the Warriors fear a sprained MCL for Curry. While a minor sprain to Curry's MCL wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for the Warriors, it still would be bad news. The best-case scenario, assuming the Warriors' fears are correct, is that Curry misses about two weeks of action. The average absence this season for players with low-grade MCL sprains was 15 days.
What you can take from this is that if the MRI reveals that Curry's MCL is indeed sprained, he will certainly miss the rest of the series with the Rockets and may also have to miss a second round series against either the Los Angeles Clippers or the Portland Trail Blazers. None of this is set in stone obviously, but this could be a huge hindrance to Golden State's title defense.
This Warriors team is still very good without Curry on the floor, but with him they are the best regular season team of all-time and were easy favorites to win the championship. With the possibility of not having Curry in round two, their margin for error gets much smaller, and the race for the title becomes wide open. Curry seemed upbeat after the game which could also be a good sign, but until we know for sure what his status is going forward, there is a possibility that these NBA playoffs have taken a huge turn.
