The Warriors received some promising news on Friday, as Stephen Curry‘s MRI confirmed a pelvic contusion but revealed no structural damage, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link).
Curry, who sustained the injury after a hard fall in the third quarter of Thursday’s game vs. Toronto, won’t travel to Atlanta and will miss Saturday’s game against the Hawks. He will be reevaluated on Monday, per the Warriors.
Shams Charania of ESPN first reported (via Twitter) the update on Curry, which was later confirmed by Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Saturday’s matchup in Atlanta is the start of the six-game road trip for the Warriors. As Slater notes, the second game of the trip will be on Tuesday in Miami — the first matchup between the Warriors and Heat after last month’s blockbuster trade of Jimmy Butler.
Butler struggled with his shot (4-of-15 from the field) on Thursday, but he still recorded a triple-double (16 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds) and had a clutch block late in the fourth quarter. After the game, he said the Warriors will need to play “perfect basketball” without Curry, according to Slater (Twitter video link).
“We can’t afford to turn the ball over. We can’t afford to foul. Because we don’t have the one individual who can automatically get us back into the game,” Butler said.
The Warriors have surged up the standings since they acquired Butler, currently holding a 41-29 record, good for the No. 6 seed in the West. However, they’re only 1.5 games ahead of the Clippers and Timberwolves in the race to secure an automatic playoff berth, so each of their 12 remaining games will be critical if they want to avoid the play-in tournament this spring.