OAKLAND -– Stephen Curry went through his fabled pregame routing without a hitch, cutting both ways, backpedaling and sprinting. His bruised left leg made barely a peep.
Back in the starting lineup after a two-game absence, he lasted all of 14 minutes Saturday night before leaving the court for good in the second quarter of a 111-108 overtime win over Denver.
His leg had taken another blow in “right in the same spot,” according to Curry.
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“It’s funny how whenever you hurt something and you try to play through a little bit of discomfort and just get out there,” Curry said, “it’s usually a magnet for something to happen. So I’ve just got to deal with it.”
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Curry said he felt pretty good prior to the contact, that his legs were relatively fresh after missing two games.
But the Warriors, despite a shorthanded roster, were unwilling to take any chances.
Golden State Warriors
“I just saw him limping,” interim coach Luke Walton said. “I was talking to the staff before that if he had any pain or started limping, that we were going to take him out and let them evaluate him.”
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Curry, who leads the NBA is scoring, totaled only 5 points (on 2-of-6 shooting, 1-of-5 beyond the arc) before exiting with 2:16 left in the second quarter.
“I know exactly what it is, what happened,” Curry said. “It’s just a matter of how it feels (Sunday) and go from there. It’s not as bad as the first time it happened, so that’s good news.”
The initial injury occurred Monday against Sacramento, when Curry essentially was leg-whipped while coming off an Andrew Bogut screen. He remained in that game long enough to notch his sixth career triple-double, which included a stretch in which he scored 17 points in less than three minutes.