Curry will play through pain of dislocated finger
HOUSTON >> As he has measured the pain in his dislocated middle finger in his left hand, Stephen Curry still said he feels good enough to play in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals between the Warriors and Houston Rockets today. But it does not appear Curry’s finger has fully healed.
“It feels all right,” Curry said following practice on Friday. “It’s going to hurt. But it is what it is at this point. Just got to keep playing.”
Curry dislocated his finger after blocking Houston center Clint Capela in the first quarter of the Warriors’ eventual Game 2 win on Tuesday. He went to the locker room with 8:31 left in the first quarter, both to receive X-rays that turned out negative and tape to wrap around his finger. Curry returned at the 5:12 mark, but the injury admittedly affected his play. Curry finished with 20 points while shooting 6 of 16 from the field and 3 of 13 from 3 while recording as
many fouls as assists (five).
Since then, the Warriors have held out hope that Curry’s finger could heal enough during the team’s day off on Wednesday as well as practice on Thursday and Friday. Curry practiced both sessions without any limitations. But Curry has spent time this week with Dr. Rick Celebrini, the team’s director of sports medicine and performance, to adjust the taping on his finger.
Curry had previously had his left ring finger taped to prevent excessive movement on his left middle finger. Following Friday’s practice, Curry only had tape around his left middle finger.
• Ever since making one of his many skyhooks just over 35 years ago, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has watched countless scorers pursue something seemingly unreachable.
They failed to surpass Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Some could not match the 20 NBA seasons that AbdulJabbar eventually played to score 38,387 points. Most could not replicate AbdulJabbar’s prolific play that centered on a skyhook, efficient footwork and a towering 7-foot-2 frame. Within
the next decade, though, Abdul-Jabbar believes one current NBA star could move his name down in the record books.
His name is Kevin Durant.
“If he stays healthy,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “He also has to continue to be the focus of the offense. But I don’t see where that’s going to change.”
If Durant re-signs with the Warriors this summer, he will presumably blend his scoring along with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Durant has done that well enough to win two NBA championships and two Finals MVPs ever since leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Warriors as a free agent three years ago. If Durant joins the New York Knicks, he could have a larger scoring load, whether it involves playing with a handful of young players or with Kyrie Irving. If Durant joins another team, other unknown variables emerge. Durant has dismissed the seasonlong fascination with his pending free agency. He has argued that speculation has detracted attention away from his on-court production.
After all, the Warriors have a 2-0 series lead against the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals partly because of Durant. The Warriors enter Game 3 with
Durant averaging a leagueleading 34.3 points on 52.7 percent shooting in the playoffs. He is also 24 points shy of tying Dwyane Wade for 10th place on the NBA playoffs all-time scoring list (3,954).
“This is the best I’ve ever seen Kevin play,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I’m biased, but I think he is the best player in the league.”
Before then, Durant offered a blend of scoring and facilitating during the regular season, averaging 26 points on 52.1 percent shooting along with 5.9 assists per game. That is just one point shy of his career averages in points per game through 12 NBA seasons.
Abdul-Jabbar believes Durant’s current numbers will mostly stay the same, regardless of which uniform he wears following this season. Sure, Durant’s averages through three seasons in Golden State (25.8 points per game) represent his lowest scoring output since his second season with the Oklahoma City Thunder (25.3). It also falls short of his MVP season in 2013-14 MVP (32 points per game). And yet, Durant still ranked ninth in the NBA this season in scoring.
“No matter where he goes, he’s going to score and be a player that is decisive for that franchise,” AbdulJabbar said. “It just all depends on how he sees it and
what he wants to get done.”
Where will Durant finish on the NBA’s all-time scoring list?
“If he keeps scoring like this, he can be all the way up there,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who recently retired from a 20-year career with the Dallas Mavericks as the NBA’s sixth all-time leading scorer (31,560 points). “He’s young enough. His game should age well. He’s got length and he can slide over to [power forward] if he wants later on in his career. The sky is the limit.”
Durant would need to play at least eight more seasons to surpass Abdul-Jabbar, seven more seasons to eclipse Karl Malone for second (36,928 points) and six more seasons to top Kobe Bryant for third (33,643). When Durant had reached 10,481 points during the 2012-13 season with the Thunder, Bryant had already sensed Durant would at least top the 30,000 point mark. Last year, Bryant observed Durant “has basically eliminated all weaknesses from his game.”
It remains hard to gauge how many seasons Durant would need to play to eclipse James for fourth (35,292 points) since he still has three years left on his contract with the Lakers. But Durant would likely need to play five more seasons to supplant Jordan for fifth (32,292), Nowitzki for sixth (31,560) and Wilt
Chamberlain for seventh (31,419).
“Certainly, he’ll be top
10. The question will be how long does he want to play?” Miller said. “Does he have a goal in sight? Does he want to pass LeBron? Does he want to get in the top three? Does he want to catch MJ? Does he want to go after Kobe? Those are all personal questions I’m sure he’s asking himself. But from the outside looking in, certainly he’s going to be top 10. The question is, ‘Will he be top five?’”
• James Harden, a twotime league scoring champion and perennial MVP candidate, arrived for practice with eyes nearly as bloody and impaired as they were for most of Game 2 in Oakland, with Harden declaring his condition better although he certainly didn’t look the part.
Still, taking into consideration the damage incurred by their best player, the Rockets returned home for Game 3 facing problems greater than Harden and his compromised vision. They must correct two issues that stalled their growth during the regular season.
Even if Harden can see clearly enough to shoot and pass with confidence, the Rockets will likely fall into an 0-3 series hole if they don’t rebound the ball with greater effectiveness and display a level of ball security necessary to compete with the two-time reigning league champions.
“We know that they’re champions, but we’re losing the game because — it’s real simple — they’re taking more shots at the basket than we are,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We’re actually shooting a little bit better but they’re taking more shots, and they’re doing it because we have too many turnovers and we’re not rebounding the basketball. And we’ve got to cure those two problems.
“If we do that, we’ll be fine. If we don’t, obviously the series is not going to be as good as we want it to be.”
The Rockets committed 31 turnovers over two games at Oracle Arena and, combined with their woeful defensive rebounding, fueled a Golden State offense that has been less efficient shooting-wise. Houston actually carved out a 54.6 effective-field-goal percentage over Games 1 and 2, slightly better than the Warriors’ 53.6 field goal percentage.
But Golden State is plus15 in field-goal attempts largely because of the Rockets’ wayward ballhandling and the Warriors’ offensive rebounding rate. Golden State has corralled 26 offensive boards, or 30.2 percent of its misses.