“I know how tricky hamstring injuries can be,” Steph Curry said before Thursday’s Game 2. “They can fool you and make you think it’s healed (when it’s not) if you don’t feel anything. That gray area will be confusing, I’m sure. But I’ll do everything in my power to get back.”
Curry is working closely with Rick Celebrini, the Warriors’ trusted medical decision maker, on the rehab process. This is Curry’s first soft tissue injury since a strained adductor in 2018. Celebrini has told him that he must rest the hamstring for a week, letting it heal, before testing it. He can’t even take stationary shots at this point.
“I’m a ways away from that,” Curry said.
The team has already ruled Curry out of Games 2, 3 and 4. It’s clear he has ambitions to work his way back at some point in this series, but Game 5, which is next Wednesday night in Minnesota, appears to be a stretch.
There’s a three-day break before Game 6, putting it 11 days out from the injury. Warriors coach Steve Kerr softly floated that as a potential point to think about Curry’s return. But Celebrini and Curry will make the ultimate decision, and Curry didn’t want to put a target date on his return quite yet.
“No,” Curry said. “This is new, and from all that I’m learning about how quickly you can get back, there has to be a healing process. It’s just the way the body works. You can’t accelerate more than the body is telling you. It’ll be one of those after a week, really re-evaluate it every day to understand when it’s safe just to even think about playing.”
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Steph Curry doesn’t have target return date for ‘tricky’ hamstring injury