Warriors' Stephen Curry hurts knee in return from ankle injury

OAKLAND - He's hurt again.

In his first game back from an ankle injury, Stephen Curry sprained the MCL in his left knee. The Warriors won anyway, beating the Atlanta Hawks 106-94.

Curry injured his knee late in the third quarter. He had just scored his 29th point and the Warriors had taken the lead.

That's when center JaVale McGee jumped to block a shot, landed, slipped and fell into the side of Curry's knee.

“I assumed it was his ankle when he came up hobbling,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Then I found out it was his knee. We'll see what the MRI says. There's not a whole lot we can do or predict.

“It's kind of a strange, cruel twist of fate. He rehabs his ankle for the last couple weeks, gets that strong and then the knee goes.”

Curry had missed the Warriors' past six games with a right ankle injury he suffered March 8. During that stretch, the Warriors' record was 2-4.

He has injured his right ankle four times so far this season and missed 21 of the Warriors' 72 games.

“It seems pretty random,” Kerr said. “We're not doing anything different, and he's not doing anything different from what we've done the last few years, what he has done. Random stuff.”

The Warriors are 41-10 with Curry this season while scoring 118.7 points per game.

Without Curry, they are 13-8 while scoring 105.1 points per game.

They may be without him for a while.

Two seasons ago, Curry sprained his right MCL during a playoff series against the Houston Rockets and missed the next two weeks.

Last season, Kevin Durant sprained his left MCL on Feb. 28 and missed the next 20 games. He returned April 8, which was 39 days after the injury occurred.

If Curry misses 39 days, he will miss the beginning of the playoffs.

Coming into Friday night, Curry was the only Warriors All-Star healthy enough to play. Draymond Green missed his second game in a row with a pelvic contusion, Kevin Durant missed his fourth game in a row with a rib cartilage fracture and Klay Thompson missed his fifth game with a broken right thumb. Backup forward Omri Casspi (not an All-Star) also missed the game with a sprained ankle.

Without those key players, Kerr started Nick Young at shooting guard, Patrick McCaw at small forward, Jordan Bell at power forward and Zaza Pachulia at center. Curry, of course, was the point guard.

“It would be nice to have four or five games at the end of the year with everybody healthy, knock on wood,” Kerr said before the game.

Maybe he should have knocked harder.

Quinn Cook, the Warriors' starting point guard during Curry's recent absence, returned to the bench. Cook was averaging 24.3 points and shooting 54.5 percent from behind the 3-point line the past three games.

“I feel bad,” Kerr said. “I took him out of the starting lineup on his birthday. He has been fantastic and has earned the right to continue to play.”

Cook made his first appearance with 4:01 left in the first quarter. By then, the Warriors trailed 14-10, and Curry had missed four of his first five shots, including two 3-pointers. He seemed rusty.

The Warriors almost lost another player to injury. With 10:52 left in the first quarter, McCaw fell on the hardwood attempting a layup and injured his lower back. He immediately left the game and walked to the locker room, but returned shortly after. He finished with five points.

During the final minutes of the first quarter, Cook scored four points, grabbed a steal and gave the Warriors momentum. He finished the game with 13 points and six assists.

At the end of the first quarter, the Warriors trailed 18-16. They made just 7 of 24 shots (29.2 percent) from the field during the opening period.

When the second quarter started, Curry was on the bench, and the Hawks quickly went on an 8-0 run to extend their lead to 10.

With 6:49 left in the first half and the Warriors losing 33-20, Curry returned to the game.

Right away, he made three mid-range jump shots in a row. Then, Young made back-to-back 3s, and the Warriors cut their deficit to five.

Curry scored 11 points during the second quarter and made 4 of 5 shots from the field, including 3 of 3 from behind the 3-point line. He did not seem rusty anymore.

At halftime, the Warriors trailed 51-43.

Curry continued to pour it on the Hawks during the third quarter, scoring 15 of the Warriors' first 23 points.

With 3:30 left before the fourth quarter, he made a 3-pointer, drew a foul, made the free throw and gave the Warriors a 66-64 lead - their first lead since early in the game.

On the next possession, Curry hurt his knee.

“I definitely do not have an ominous feeling,” Kerr said. “I feel disappointed for Steph. We'll see how long he has to be out. We'll have guys coming back in the next couple weeks. We've got enough and we can push forward. We can win a lot of games. Hopefully, we'll get Steph back at some point.”

Hopefully.