Steph Curry ankle ‘fine’ but Warriors ‘not where we need to be’ after ugly Kings loss

SACRAMENTO – The only positive after the Golden State Warriors’ ugly 124-118 loss to the tanking Sacramento Kings is that Stephen Curry will walk away from this game with only a tweaked ankle.

“I’ll be alright,” Curry said post-game, his right ankle in a big bucket of ice water. “As long as it’s not my knee, I can deal with ankles; I’ve been dealing with that forever.”

Otherwise, the Warriors look in poor shape for the upcoming Play-In Tournament, in which they will have to win two games to make the playoffs and extend their season.

“We’re going into Wednesday’s Play-In game without much momentum,” a tired-looking Steve Kerr said post-game. “Without a whole lot of continuity and health and all that. So we’re trying to put it together quickly, and we’re gonna have to clean up a lot of mistakes between now and then. But we do have some time, but we have to focus.”

The mistakes the Warriors have to clean up are plenty.

They suffered numerous defensive breakdowns, some as simple as knowing the personnel, others as familiar and as cyclical as the ones they’ve made all season. They also looked clunky and out of rhythm offensively– a byproduct of their many injuries disrupting their continuity and chemistry.

The Warriors just do not look like a team that can make a run right now.

And while Curry avoided reaggravating the right knee issue that held him out for 27 games, he’s not at full strength. Curry has yet to get back to his full minutes load, only reaching 27 minutes tonight. And the ankle tweak clearly took Curry out of rhythm the rest of the game– he only finished with 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting and a -4 plus/minus.

Getting Stephen Curry in rhythm

Thus, the plan in the final game of the season is to play Curry and the rest of the rotation against their likely Play-In opponent, the Los Angeles Clippers, after their loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. To help Curry find his sea legs.

For how long and how intense, Kerr did not specify. But he and Curry are on the same page about wanting to get the star guard more rhythm, more minutes, and better conditioning before Wednesday’s do-or-die affair.

And both coach and player made it clear that they need to put together some good reps of basketball. Reps in which they are focused and in rhythm. Reps that can put some substance into the hope Kerr still maintains with this team.

“I’ve got lots of hope,” Kerr said when asked what gives him hope, even though he pointed out they don’t have much momentum right now.

“I think we can win two games, because I know these guys and I believe in them, but I also know that we’re not where we need to be. We showed that tonight. So Sunday I’d like to get more reps, have more focus, fewer mistakes, and we’ll have a couple of days to prepare and get after it.”

“48 great minutes,” Curry declared. “That’s all we gotta [do], it’s all we have in front of us.”

“It’s a dumb answer. We’re trying to find all the one-liners to say and all the great narratives to lock in on. It’s weird because you have a lineup that you expect to have nine-ten guys that are going to play, but we haven’t really had reps. So I don’t know how to quantify it, other than we have one game to find some good pattern, some good chemistry.”

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