The Golden State Warriors are benching their stars after another upset
Stephen Curry had a chance to show why he's the two-time MVP with a potential game winner against the Wolves on Friday night — and he came up short.
Curry's missed jumper in the closing seconds and secured a 103-102 victory for Minnesota and the fourth loss in six games for the Warriors, the first such stretch in the past three seasons for Golden State.
With his reeling team traveling to San Antonio for a Western Conference clash on Saturday night, Warriors coach Steve Kerr responded to Friday's loss by announcing he'll sit Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala against the Kawhi Leonard-less Spurs.
Via ESPN.com:
"We're going to get [to San Antonio] at 3 a.m.," Kerr said. "Those guys are all playing big minutes, and this would give them three days before our home game, and then we'll have a whole week at home next week and a chance to get recharged.
"It's my call, and it's the right thing to do in terms of the way the season is playing out and the way the minutes have gone and KD's injury. It's the right thing to do, so we're doing it."
There's no doubt Kerr's making the right call. Yes, Curry & C0. need to find some semblance of rhythm with Kevin Durant out of the lineup, but there's still plenty of time for that this season. The playoffs are a month away, so why not hit the reset button by giving everyone the night off? Golden State leads San Antonio by 1.5 games for the one seed; even if the Warriors fall to No. 2, they're probably not going to worry too much.
The only thing that matters for the once-and-future superteam is health — because if Curry, Green, Thompson or Iguodala goes down along with KD, this whole grand Warriors experiment comes to an abrupt end in 2017.
Oh, and after Saturday's game against the Spurs, who will still put up one hell of a fight without Kawhi? The Warriors have games against the 76ers, Magic, Mavs and Kings (plus the feisty Bucks and Russell Westbrook's Thunder). Those are the games where Curry can get back to "The Old Steph," assuming he's ever going to reach that level again. So don't try to force it against Gregg Popovich's crew. That's only going to end in more frustration.
