OAKLAND–The time is near.
After spending nearly a month resting and recovering from an ankle injury he suffered on December 4 in New Orleans, Warriors’ point guard Steph Curry is preparing to return to a Golden State squad that picked up its NBA-best 28th win on Wednesday night against the Jazz.
Though the Warriors have posted the league’s worst three-point shooting percentage in Curry’s absence, head coach Steve Kerr believes the team has lost just once since Curry’s injury because Golden State ranks as the NBA’s best defense over the last 10 games. The Warriors have turned into a grind-it-out, ragtag group of scrappy defenders, and leaned on the play of MVP Kevin Durant who’s carried the team on both sides of the floor.
While Golden State is excited about Curry’s return, which could come as soon as Friday evening at Oracle Arena, Durant said Curry’s ankle sprain has forced the team to handle adversity head-on and decipher a way to win without its leading offensive presence.
“Once your leader and point guard goes out, the head of the snake on offensive side of the ball, you definitely got to, it’s going to be hard to make up for him,” Durant said. “So we just have to figure it out and I think once you take something away, you’ve just got to figure out how you’re going to be effective and I think everybody on the team just started thinking about it.”
As Durant and Klay Thompson have shouldered the load for the Warriors on the offensive end of the floor, Durant, Draymond Green and rookie Jordan Bell have formed the NBA’s most potent trio of rim protectors. Golden State is blocking shots at a record pace, and Durant leads the league with 70 blocks on the season.
In the near future, the Warriors will have an opportunity to build upon a recent stretch of top-notch defensive play and integrate one of the game’s best offensive players back into their system. Though Durant has enjoyed his time in the spotlight, he said after Wednesday’s game that the team is eager for Curry to return, and he can tell the team’s point guard is inching closer.
“Coach has made it a thing, once Steph got injured, we had a few meetings just had to talk it out as a group on how we’re going to play and what we need to do to win basketball games and everybody just knuckled down and got focused,” Durant said. “Once Steph comes back, it’ll be the same thing and I can look in his eyes and I know that he’s ready to play. He’s excited to get back out there so we can’t wait to have him.”