Warriors star Steph Curry will undergo an MRI on his left hamstring on Wednesday, but coach Steve Kerr’s initial prognosis doesn’t seem encouraging.
“I talked to him at halftime. He’s obviously crushed,” Kerr told reporters shortly after the Warriors won Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. “But the guys picked him up and played a great game. Obviously, we’re all concerned about Steph but it’s part of the game. Guys get hurt and you move on. Our guys did a great job of moving on and getting a great win, 48 hours after a Game 7 road win.
“It’s an amazing group of guys. They compete, they’re together, been the best defense in the league since the Jimmy trade, and that’s what’s keeping us afloat.”
Curry sustained the injury early in the second quarter and was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the Warriors’ eventual 99-88 win over the Timberwolves.
Kerr deemed Curry day-to-day, but the MRI will determine the true extent of the injury.
With the quick turnaround for Game 2 on Thursday, Kerr isn’t expecting Curry to play.
“We’re definitely gameplanning for him to not be available on Thursday, but we don’t know yet,” Kerr said. “But with a hamstring, it’s hard to imagine he’ll play Thursday.”
Curry didn’t speak to reporters after Tuesday’s game, but when he left the locker room for the team bus, he had a noticeable limp.
Golden State might be able to get by Minnesota with Curry sidelined, but its NBA title hopes hinge on the four-time champion returning at some point during the playoffs.
A magical NBA season in Cleveland is suddenly in danger of ending.
The No. 1 Cavaliers, who went 64-18 in the regular season, fell in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the No. 4 Indiana Pacers, with Tyrese Haliburton nailing a game-winning 3-pointer close to time expiring.
Indiana stunned Cleveland 121-112 in Game 1, and matters worsened for the Cavs when Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter were ruled out for Game 2 due to injuries. The short-handed Cavs then blew leads on multiple occasions and Haliburton, after fans chanted “overrated” at him, took advantage.
So, what does history say about Cleveland’s chances with the series headed to Indiana? Here’s what to know:
How many NBA teams won a series down 2-0?
Since 1956, 463 series — non-seven-games series included — started with a team winning each of the first two games. In 429 of those, the team with the advantage won. Only 34 were able to overcome the 2-0 deficit, a 7.3% success rate.
How many NBA teams won a conference semifinals series down 2-0?
Narrowing down the numbers to just the conference semifinals, 117 series have seen a team trail 2-0 and just eight (6.8%) came back to win.
How many NBA teams down 2-0 forced a Game 6 or Game 7?
Cleveland has to force either a Game 6 or Game 7 to win the series and advance. Teams down 2-0 forced a Game 6 87 times, but just 14 (16.1%) advanced to the next round.
A Game 7 transpired on 58 occasions, with 14 teams (24.1%) completing the series comeback.
When was the last time an NBA team won a series down 2-0?
Not all hope is lost for Cleveland, as a team has recovered from a 2-0 deficit to win in each of the last four postseasons. And the last team to do it is a familiar face. In the 2024 Eastern Conference semifinals, the Pacers came back to beat the New York Knicks in seven games.
The last thing the Warriors need right now is a Steph Curry injury, but that’s what they are dealing with early in Game 1 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Less than four minutes into the second quarter of the Western Conference semifinal opener Tuesday at Target Center, Curry tweaked his left hamstring on a defensive possession. He grabbed the back of his left leg on several occasions.
The Warriors ruled Curry out a few minutes later.
Steph Curry is OUT for the rest of the game with a left hamstring strain @NBCSWarriors
Curry stayed in the game but after Draymond Green hit a 3-pointer to give the Warriors a 30-20 lead, the Timberwolves called a timeout and the two-time NBA MVP walked to Golden State’s locker room for evaluation.
The last thing the Warriors need right now is a Steph Curry injury, but that’s what they are dealing with early in Game 1 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Less than four minutes into the second quarter of the Western Conference semifinal opener Tuesday at Target Center, Curry tweaked his left hamstring on a defensive possession. He grabbed the back of his left leg on several occasions.
The Warriors ruled Curry out a few minutes later.
Steph Curry is OUT for the rest of the game with a left hamstring strain @NBCSWarriors
Curry stayed in the game but after Draymond Green hit a 3-pointer to give the Warriors a 30-20 lead, the Timberwolves called a timeout and the two-time NBA MVP walked to Golden State’s locker room for evaluation.
Elton Brand has reportedly decided to stay with the Sixers.
Jake Fischer reported Tuesday night that Brand has withdrawn from the Hawks’ president of basketball operations search. Atlanta is looking to fill that role after firing general manager Landry Fields.
A two-time All-Star power forward in his playing days, Brand made 263 of his 1,058 NBA appearances for the Sixers. He played two seasons with the Hawks.
Brand shifted to the Sixers’ front office after retiring as a player and got the general manager job in September of 2018. He was at the top of the team’s basketball operations department for two eventful seasons. High-profile moves included:
Trading for Jimmy Butler, parting with Robert Covington and Dario Saric
Acquiring Tobias Harris in a three-team deadline deal
Sending Markelle Fultz to the Magic, acquiring a protected first-round pick that wound up netting Tyrese Maxey
Shipping Butler to the Heat via four-team sign-and-trade, picking up Josh Richardson
Signing Al Horford to a four-year contract with $97 million guaranteed
Keeping Harris with a five-year, $180 million deal
Inking Ben Simmons to a five-year, $170 million extension
Firing Brett Brown as head coach and hiring Doc Rivers
Brand has worked alongside Morey the last five seasons. The 2024-25 campaign was by far the worst. Joel Embiid, Paul George and Maxey all missed significant time with injury woes and the Sixers lost 58 games.
That leaves the team hoping for much better health, a favorable draw on lottery night, and impactful offseason pickups.
MINNEAPOLIS – The Warriors showed little signs of fatigue 48 hours after their Game 7 win in the first round of the NBA playoffs, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 99-88 Tuesday night at the Target Center in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
But the win can’t be as celebrated as usual.
Steph Curry, in the second quarter, grabbed at the back of his left leg and was ruled out for the remainder of the game with a strained hamstring. The Warriors once led by 23 points before holding off the Timberwolves in the end.
Draymond Green’s offensive revival again proved to be huge. The defensive star scored 18 points to go with eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. He scored 40 total points in the first six games of the first round and now has totaled 34 in the Warriors’ last two games.
Buddy Hield missed all seven of his shots in the first half, scoring two points at the free-throw line. His activity turned to scoring production in the third quarter, putting up 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Hield ended with 24 points and five threes to become the first player in NBA history to total 14 threes in a two-game playoff span.
Jimmy Butler, in his return to Minnesota, was stellar, posting a near triple-double of 20 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards was held to one point in the first half, but scored 22 in the final two quarters. The Timberwolves only scored 31 points through two quarters, the fewest first-half points the Warriors have allowed for a playoff game in the shot clock era. In their first-round series win, the Timberwolves averaged 107.4 points, almost 20 more than what they finished with Tuesday night.
Countless layups rimmed in and out, and the Timberwolves were colder than ice-cold from 3-point range. The Warriors went 18 of 42 on threes (42.9 percent), and the Timberwolves were 5 of 29 (17.2 percent)
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ Game 1 win.
Surviving Steph’s Injury
Just as the Warriors were finding their flow, Curry was forced to limp to the locker room in the second quarter. On back-to-back possessions, Curry hit a rainbow of a three from the left wing that floated high into the air and through the nets, grabbed Donte DiVincenzo’s missed three and went coast to coast for a floater. But almost immediately, it became clear something was wrong.
Curry began grabbing at his left hamstring and motioned to the Warriors’ bench that he needed to be taken out. He wasn’t noticed at first and play resumed. Somehow, Curry still managed to make an impact by finding Green for a three. The Timberwolves then called a timeout and Curry slowly limped across the court and right down the tunnel back to the Warriors’ locker room with director of sports medicine and performance Rick Celebrini.
It looked like Curry could have been in for a huge night, too. He was a plus-10, having already scored 13 points in 13 minutes. He was 5 of 9 from the field and made three of his six 3-point attempts prior to his injury. He scored eight of the Warriors’ 18 points in the first quarter, and five of their first 12 in the second quarter.
The Warriors led 30-20 when Curry exited the game. He was ruled out with a left hamstring strain later in the second quarter.
The Butler Returns
Butler’s time in Minnesota was short but memorable, mostly because of drama forcing his way out of town 10 games into his second season with the Timberwolves. He was an All-Star and was named Second Team All-Defensive and Third Team All-NBA in his first year for the Timberwolves. By the sound of the crowd, there is absolutely no love remaining for him in the Twin Cities.
Butler played his first game at the Target Center since November of 2021. He last played for the Timberwolves on Nov. 9, 2019, before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. Butler received loud boos whenever he touched the ball.
Butler didn’t go on a scoring tear but was flying all over the court. In the first half, when he only had six points, Butler came down with five offensive rebounds and added two steals. The Warriors will need him to be a scorer in Curry’s absence, but the rest of his game shone bright.
Dominant From Downtown
Despite missing 17 consecutive threes and going 7 of 37 as a team, the Timberwolves were able to beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the first round to advance to the conference semifinals. Their victory was largely because of Rudy Gobert’s 27 points and 24 rebounds. Gobert wasn’t nearly as effective in Game 1 against the Warriors to open Round 2, and the Timberwolves kept missing from long distance.
Minnesota took eight threes in the first quarter and didn’t make a single one. Another seven tries and another seven misses in the second quarter brought the Timberwolves to a wild 0 of 15 on 3-pointers in the first half. Meanwhile, as the Warriors led 44-31 at halftime, they were nine of 20 on threes – a 27-point advantage. Curry was responsible for three of those treys, but other Warriors were cashing in as well.
Most notably, Curry’s longest teammate. Butler made one three in the first half, as did Brandin Podziemski. Green, however, had already made four.
The Timberwolves missed their first try behind the 3-point line in the third quarter, and Naz Reid finally snapped the streak on their 17th attempt of the night. Going back to the Timberwolves’ previous game, Edwards missed 14 consecutive threes before making one with three minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The Warriors’ stunning 99-88 Game 1 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night at Target Center completed a remarkable few days in the NBA.
With Golden State’s Western Conference semifinal victory, all four road teams won Game 1 of the Division/Conference Semifinals round for the first time in NBA history.
On Sunday, the Indiana Pacers stole their series opener against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. A day later, the New York Knicks rallied to beat the Boston Celtics in overtime, while the Denver Nuggets stunned the NBA-best Oklahoma City Thunder in the final seconds.
The Warriors completed the feat Tuesday night.
Making the Warriors’ win all the more impressive, they did it for the majority of the contest without Steph Curry, who sustained a left hamstring strain early in the second quarter, exiting the game with 13 points.
The Warriors entered Tuesday’s game with one day of rest after beating the Houston Rockets in Game 7 on Sunday night.
Indiana did the unthinkable and somehow won Game 2 in Cleveland earlier on Tuesday night. New York and Denver will have a chance to snatch their respective Game 2s on Wednesday, while Golden State is back in action Thursday night.
Winning Game 2 without Curry might be a tall task, but for now, the Warriors will bask in the glory of taking the series opener.
The last thing the Warriors need right now is a Steph Curry injury, but that’s what they are dealing with early in Game 1 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Less than four minutes into the second quarter of the Western Conference semifinal opener Tuesday at Target Center, Curry tweaked his left hamstring on a defensive possession. He grabbed the back of his left leg on several occasions.
The Warriors ruled Curry out a few minutes later.
Steph Curry is OUT for the rest of the game with a left hamstring strain @NBCSWarriors
Curry stayed in the game but after Draymond Green hit a 3-pointer to give the Warriors a 30-20 lead, the Timberwolves called a timeout and the two-time NBA MVP walked to Golden State’s locker room for evaluation.
Starting in the fall, NBC Sports will broadcast NBA games for the first time since 2002. (Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
Many people remember the late Jim Fagan as the rugged voice that proudly informed 1990s and early-2000s basketball fans that they were watching the NBA on NBC.
NBC Sports announced Tuesday that through the use of AI voice synthesis technology — and through a partnership with Fagan's family — the announcer's voice will be heard on "select title sequences, show opens, and promos" when the NBA returns to the network this fall after more than two decades. Fagan's voice will be used to "supplement traditional voiceover work by other artists hired by NBC Sports," the network said in a news release.
That announcement came days after NBC Sports revealed that it was bringing back "Roundball Rock" as its NBA anthem. On Tuesday, the network dropped a promo video featuring both the classic song and Fagan's AI-generated voice. Any nostalgic vibes felt by old-school NBA fans definitely were not coincidental.
“For many basketball fans, Jim’s unique and recognizable voice immediately conjures a deep sense of nostalgia for a special time in NBA history,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said in the news release. “His voice perfectly captured the magnitude of the heavyweight matchups and stars that he was introducing. It’s been a joy to work with Jim’s family to recreate his voice and honor his legacy. I’m excited we’re able to introduce his voice to a whole new generation of fans.”
Four hours after the promo video was posted on YouTube, it had received 25 comments, most of which criticized the decision to use AI to generate the voice of someone who is no longer alive. But Fagan's daughters, Jana Silvia Joyce and Risa Silvia-Koonin, said in NBC's news release that their father would have been "thrilled."
“We’re deeply grateful that NBC Sports had the vision to honor our father’s legacy in such a meaningful way," Silvia Joyce and Silvia-Koonin stated. "He took great pride in his work with NBC Sports, especially in helping set the stage for some of the most memorable moments in NBA history. Knowing that his voice will once again be part of the game he loved — and that a new generation of fans will get to experience it — is incredibly special for our family. He would be so thrilled and proud to be a part of this.”
Thunder executive Sam Presti had already built a team that was a No. 1 seed with an elite young core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. Yet, last year's playoffs exposed some holes in the roster — they needed toughness — and Presti had a great offseason filling those by signing big man Isaiah Hartenstein and trading Josh Giddey to Chicago for Alex Caruso.
Those moves, leading the Thunder to a 68-win season and a team expected to come out of the Western Conference, earned Presti the NBA Executive of the Year award.
This is an award voted on by Presti's peers, the other lead executives/GMs around the league.
Presti got 10 first-place votes, with six second-place and six third-place votes. Cleveland's Koby Altman finished second in the voting with six first-place votes, with the Pistons' Trajan Langdon third. The Rockets' Rafael Stone finished fourth, and the Clippers' Lawrence Frank was fifth. In total, 13 executives got a top-three vote. The complete voting results can be seen here.
Trailing by 20 points midway through the third quarter, the Knicks found a way to fight back and come away with a dramatic 108-105 overtime win in Game 1 against the Boston Celtics.
While the improbable road win has given New York an early lead in the series, there is a prevailing thought that the Celtics simply had an off night, as evidenced by their abysmal 15-of-60 (25 percent) three-point shooting and Kristaps Porzingis playing just 13 minutes.
Will Boston have another game in which they miss 45 shots from beyond the arc? It’s safe to say that’s highly unlikely, but as Josh Hart said on Tuesday, the Knicks deserve credit for the way that they executed on the defensive end.
Plus, it's not like the Knicks played at the top of their game either, yet they found a way to win.
“It’s twofold, right? I don’t think we played our best basketball. We got outrebounded by 10, we gave up 24 second-chance points, we gave up some easy fastbreak dunks that we shouldn’t have," Hart said.
"When a team isn’t playing well it’s ‘why are they not playing well?’ Is it because they’re just off that day, or is it because the defense or the other team is playing well and forcing them into playing that kind of style?”
To illustrate his point, Hart brought up how the Detroit Pistons were able to disrupt the Knicks and keep them from playing their best game in any of the six contests from their first round matchup.
“We’ve got to give Detroit credit, because Detroit did not allow us to play our best game. Fortunately for us, we were able to win that series without playing our best game in any game that whole series,” said Hart, who scored 14 points and added 11 rebounds over 45 minutes in Game 1 in Boston.
“Obviously, [the Celtics] had some shots that they didn’t make that were makeable shots for them, but I feel like we executed our game plan,” Hart said. “We played with physicality and energy. We flew around.”
But now the Knicks face a new challenge heading Wednesday’s Game 2: the proverbial post-big-win hangover.
Tom Thibodeau’s squad may have been on the winning end of one of the more dramatic comebacks in recent playoff history on Monday night, but the head coach knows the key is moving on and being prepared for what comes next.
“That’s the challenge for everybody. I think in the playoffs, that’s sort of the nature of the beast,” Thibodeau explained. “It’s very emotional, there are great highs, there are lows. You have to navigate both, and no matter what happens, you don’t carry it over into the next game. You have to reset and be ready to do it all over again.”
Florida basketball coach Todd Golden inked a six-year, $40.5 million extension, adding a year to his current deal and putting him under contract through the 2030-31 season. He signed a two-year extension in March 2024 that increased his average salary to $4.1 million annually.
