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Steph doesn't have target return date from ‘frustrating' injury originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

 MINNEAPOLIS – Warriors superstar Steph Curry has a long history of rehab and injury recovery. This season alone, Curry has dealt with issues to his knees, neck, right thumb and pelvic area. His latest injury is the land of the great unknown.

Curry, in the second quarter of the Warriors’ Game 1 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday in the Western Conference semifinals, grabbed at the back of his left leg and was ruled out for the rest of the game with a strained hamstring. An MRI the next day revealed a Grade 1 strain, with the Warriors announcing Curry will be re-evaluated in one week.

"I'll do everything in my power to get back as soon as possible."

Steph is cautious but determined to get back on the court 💪 pic.twitter.com/oD8H4ELnmM

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 8, 2025

That coincides with the same day as Game 5 of the second round, ruling Curry out for at least Games 2, 3 and 4. Perhaps even more, too.

Having never dealt with a hamstring injury, not even tightness, the 37-year-old says he doesn’t have a target date at the moment for his return.

“This is new and from all that I’m learning about how quickly you can get back, there has to be a healing process,” Curry said Thursday at Warriors shootaround before Game 2. “It’s just the way the body works. You can’t accelerate more than what it’s telling you.” 

After a week of rest and rehab, Curry and the Warriors’ training staff will re-evaluate his hamstring every day to know when it’s safe to even think about playing, let alone thinking about how hard he can push it, which seemingly should keep him out for Game 5 – and possibly longer. 

Eventual conversations will be had with teammates who have dealt with hamstring injuries in the past, such as Gary Payton II. Not quite yet, though.

“I will, for sure,” Curry said. “I’ve been in my feelings a little bit.” 

Curry scored eight of the Warriors’ 18 points in the first quarter, and then looked to be heating up after making a high-arching step-back three on Jaden McDaniel three minutes into the second quarter. But on the other side, Curry felt something wrong playing defense. He jumped out to help on Mike Conley and almost immediately grabbed at the back of his left leg after planting and pivoting. 

Still, he initially stayed in the game and made a floater on the Warriors’ next offensive possession. Jogging back to defense with a clear limp, Curry motioned towards the Warriors’ bench to get him out of the game. 

There weren’t any warning signs. Curry felt great up until that point, and even said so prior to Game 1 after playing 46 minutes just 48 hours earlier in Game 7 of the Warriors’ first-round win against the Houston Rockets. 

What he first felt didn’t appear to be anything too bad. Curry thought he could go to the locker room, get it released and come back, but with a soft tissue injury like a hamstring, he quickly learned he could have done more damage if he tried to play through it. 

The natural healing process is all that Curry can rely on right now. He isn’t even entertaining thoughts of rushing back and what that might do to him. Hamstrings are tricky, and Curry could be fooled by the gray area these injuries bring. 

While the injury is new to Curry, this isn’t the first time he has missed games in the playoffs. When he missed six games in 2016, the Warriors went 4-2, and they went 5-1 when he missed six games to injury in 2018. Those teams also were much different in the heyday of the Warriors’ dynasty. 

Curry has all the trust that his teammates can right the ship until he returns. The Warriors went 7-5 in the regular season in games he didn’t play. His experience of dealing with prior injuries in the playoffs, however, doesn’t exactly add a sense of comfort in Year 16. 

“It’s more frustrating,” Curry admits. “When you’re 27, you feel like you’re obviously in your prime. Every opportunity I have now, you don’t want it to be wasted on an injury. I’m thankful it wasn’t worse and I’m very aware of and appreciative that I even have a chance to come back. There’s been injuries around the league that you’ve seen guys don’t have that option. I’m just trying to stay in that midframe and hopefully things work out where I can come back and we have a chance to keep doing something special. 

“Injuries are already hard emotionally, just because you know none of this is guaranteed to be back in this environment and the playoff experience and have an opportunity like that. When you get hurt, you have to be intentional in what you focus on.” 

Despite the injury, Curry was at shootaround dressed like he was ready to drop 30 points on the Timberwolves in Game 2. Instead, he served as a rebounder and fed passes to Buddy Hield over and over and over again. Curry said he’s still “a little ways away” from doing any type of stationary shooting himself. 

He hasn’t given any type of inspirational speech and doesn’t plan to. His guys have his back, and that’s all Curry can ask for. 

“No, they talk to me,” Curry said. “This is a great vibe in our locker room in terms of them trying to hold the fort down. We have a lot of confidence that we can still win the series. Guys will step up, no matter how it looks. It’s obviously a situation where you want to think positively and optimistically that we can win games and buy me some time to get back and hopefully have another series after this and be in a position where I can get back out there safely, where I’m not putting too much risk on the body if it’s not ready.

“They understand the task. We all are in it together.”

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Welcome to Act III of the 2024-25 NBA season. It was a rough start for the league this year. People came out of the woodwork to criticize it, offering wild solutions, and pointing out the low early season TV ratings. But then the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers and things got real interesting in Act II.

Now, though, we’re in the third portion of the season and it couldn’t be more exciting. Indeed, we seem far away from those calls for sweeping change. Let’s look at five players who have wowed us and taken us to the edge of our seats in this third act.

Jalen Brunson

For the entire postseason so far, Brunson and the New York Knicks have been walking a razor’s edge. To the surprise of many, it took New York six games to send Detroit packing and none of those games were easy. But the Knicks keep finding ways to win. Just ask Boston, a team the Knicks were 0-4 against during the regular season. So far, in back-to-back games on the road, New York have come back from 20-point deficits to beat Boston by a total of four points. Now, the series is headed to the Big Apple. For the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year (and former second-round pick), who had 29 points in Game 1 and 17 points with seven assists in Game 2, a shocking sweep of the reigning champions is still on the cards.

Tyrese Haliburton

What you saw Tuesday night when the Indiana Pacers’ star point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, got his own rebound off a free-throw miss and, with just a few seconds on the clock, hit a step-back three-pointer to win the game was not a mere basketball play. It was the end of a video game where one character reaches into the chest of another and rips their still-beating heart out. Indeed, the No 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers, who had been led by a prolific Donovan Mitchell, lost at the buzzer in a game the entire world (besides Haliburton) thought they would win. Like Boston, Cleveland are now down an unthinkable 0-2 (and both teams are nursing significant injuries). For Haliburton, who was recently voted the most overrated player in the NBA, victory must taste sweet. (Even if his dad isn’t allowed to watch.)

Stephen Curry

What is it about big sporting events – we love seeing our aging stars have one more run. Like Jimmy Connors reaching the US Open semi-finals at 39 years old, the Golden State Warriors and their two veterans, Steph Curry and Draymond Green, are enjoying one more deep run. Or at least they’re trying to. The Warriors hung on and beat the up and coming Houston Rockets in the opening round. Next, they took the first game from the Minnesota Timberwolves. But it was costly. Curry went out of that game with a pulled hamstring. He’ll be out at least a week. Can new acquisition Jimmy Butler help his team hold on against Minnesota? Will we see Green throwing pocket passes to Curry again this year? Well, that leads us to our next player …

Aaron Gordon

How many incredible buzzer beaters is a team allowed to have in the playoffs? Last year, the Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray hit two to beat the Lakers. This year, his teammate Aaron Gordon boasts two of his own. The first came on a tip-in dunk with .01 seconds left against the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round. The next came in Game 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder in a double-digit-point comeback. The No 1 seed Thunder are led by presumptive MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But it’s the Nuggets who have the best player in the world in Nikola Jokić. He proved that against the Thunder on Monday, leading his team expertly, and giving Gordon the opportunity for his second game-winner. OKC came back big in Game 2, though, officially making it a series.

Anthony Edwards

It’s all on a platter for Ant-Man. Already he and his Minnesota team have knocked off the Lakers and their stars, Dončić and LeBron James. That seemed almost impossible at the start of the playoffs – most analysts picked LA. But now Edwards could knock off Steph, Dray and the Dubs. All this after trouncing Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns in last year’s playoffs and winning an Olympic gold medal in the summer. Edwards is charming, talented and accomplished. If he were to lead his team to the Western Conference Finals (again) or beyond, he could become one of the biggest sports stars in America. But he laid an egg in Game 1 against Golden State, even getting called out by his coach. It was a rare dud. If he wants to sniff the rarest of rarefied air, he can’t post another.

Celtics need to channel Jaylen's mindset entering Game 3 in New York originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jaylen Brown often is the critical voice that holds his teammates accountable following difficult losses.

But late Wednesday night, on the heels of a second consecutive crushing defeat, the Boston Celtics star sensed a different message needed to be delivered.

“Not an ideal situation, being down 0-2. But what’s done is done,” Brown said after the Celtics’ Game 2 loss to the New York Knicks, in which they became the first team in NBA history to blow 20-point leads twice in the same postseason.

“You’ve got to make sure we’re ready to come out — make sure my guys are ready to come out for Game 3. I think we’re due for a lot of makes. I think we had a lot of great shots tonight that, once again, didn’t go in.”

This is the same Jaylen Brown who believed the Celtics “forced the issue” at times in Game 1, when they missed an NBA-record 45 3-pointers on 60 attempts. Boston similarly struggled from 3-point land in Game 2 (10 for 40) and now has missed 75 of its 100 deep shots through two games.

But Brown implored his team to stay the course.

“We’ve just got to relax, take a deep breath, come out and play Celtic basketball,” Brown said. “Just like we’re down 0-2, we can tie this thing back up.

“Just be poised, take a deep breath, and just go out there and do what we supposed to do,” he added. “But we’ve got to be better to close games, and we’ve got to learn and respond fast. So, that’s the key.

“Shift your mentality, shift your focus. What’s in the past is over with; let it sting a little bit and then do whatever it takes in Game 3.”

The Celtics were one of the NBA’s best late-game teams during the regular season with a league-best 24-11 record in “clutch” games (score within five points; final five minutes). That makes their collapses to the Knicks in Games 1 and 2 all the more stunning.

So, what makes Brown confident that the last two games were just an aberration and not a potential death knell for a team with championship repeat aspirations?

“Resiliency. Toughness. We’ve got a great group that stays together through it all,” Brown said. “These are the moments when we need to show our resiliency. We need to show our toughness, our mental toughness because we can get back in this thing — no question.

“Obviously, being down 0-2, it sucks, but we’ve got a great group, and if I could select any guys that could get it done, it’s the group we have in the locker room. We’ve just got to come out, be a little more poised, take a deep breath, convert our opportunities.

“We missed layups, easy baskets. In two games, we (were) up twenty points and somehow (didn’t) end up with wins. It’s inexcusable, but we’re going to learn from it. We’re going to respond.”

We’ll find out of the Celtics can channel Brown’s mindset on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m. ET, with NBC Sports Boston’s coverage beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET with Celtics Pregame Live.

‘This team is fractured': Eddie, Scal react to Celtics' perplexing loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

So… What’s wrong with the Boston Celtics?

The reigning NBA champions entered their second-round playoff matchup with the New York Knicks as heavy favorites after sweeping them in the regular season and raced out to a 20-point lead in Monday’s Game 1 at TD Garden.

Then the Knicks came storming back to steal Game 1 in overtime. Then Boston blew another 20-point lead in Wednesday’s Game 2 en route to an improbable 91-90 loss. The Celtics are the first team in NBA history to lose two games in the same postseason when leading by 20-plus points and are two losses away from a stunning playoff exit.

So, what’s gotten into this team over the past two games? Former Celtics teammates and 2008 NBA champions Brian Scalabrine and Eddie House had plenty to get off their chests after Wednesday’s loss on NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics Postgame Live.

Scalabrine pointed to one play in particular — Jaylen Brown fumbling a Jayson Tatum pass out of bounds on fast break late in the third quarter with Boston up 20 — that seemed to turn the whole tide of Game 2.

“From that 73-53 moment, they make one mistake and they seem to just fracture at that point,” Scalabrine said. “You have a 20-point lead and a transition opportunity. You throw it away, which is fine, like, mistakes happen. But you can’t let that carry over to the other side.

“They did it last game; they did it this game. They’re not attacking the end of games.”

The Celtics’ late-game offense has been hideous in this series; in Games 1 and 2 combined, they shot 9-for-45 (20 percent from the floor and 4-for-24 from 3-point range (16.7 percent) for a total of 33 points in the fourth quarter.

Those struggles are partly a result of settling for 3-point shots instead of driving to the rim and pressuring the Knicks’ defense. But Boston’s defense has lapsed in the closing minutes as well, and House believes that comes down to effort.

“We just did not close out quarters well,” House said. “We did not close out the second quarter well. We did not close out this fourth quarter well.

“… I’m over here heated right now because I’m looking at a basketball team that’s getting outworked. They’re getting outworked.”

The Celtics were one of the NBA’s best teams in “clutch” situations (score within five; final five minutes) during the regular season, as their 24-11 record in those games led the league. That makes their collapses in Games 1 and 2 all the more perplexing, and Scalabrine believes head coach Joe Mazzulla deserves at least some responsibility for how he managed the clock in the fourth quarter.

“I’m not really into the timeout thing, but in the playoffs, I think it’s a little bit different,” Scalabrine said. “We had a ‘use it or lose it’ timeout with three minutes (remaining). The Knicks are on this run. We have a ‘use it or lose it’ timeout. We don’t use it, and we lose it.”

Mazzulla also declined to call a timeout before the game’s final possession, which resulted in the Knicks double-teaming Tatum and forcing him into a turnover.

“We also go to the end with 12 seconds to go. We don’t call a timeout (before the final possession). We don’t get a great shot off of that,” Scalabrine added.

“In the regular season, you’ve got to be able to figure that out, but in the playoffs, right now, you can clearly see this team is fractured. … Maybe you’ve got to use some of these (timeouts) to get this team going the right direction again.”

The Celtics aren’t out of this series yet. They were a historically good road team during the regular season (33-8) and led for all but 12 combined minutes in Games 1 and 2. If they can play a full 48 minutes, there’s no reason why they can’t take Game 3 in New York on Saturday and get back in this series.

But at present, it’s hard to trust a team that’s inexplicably let its guard down in back-to-back playoff games.

The New York Knicks produced another stunning comeback to win the second game of their NBA Conference play-off semi-final against the Boston Celtics.

Jalen Brunson made two free throws with 12.7 seconds remaining to give New York a 91-90 lead, before Mikal Bridges knocked the ball away to deny Boston a last-gasp chance.

Josh Hart had a game-high 23 points for New York, who trailed by 20 points in the third quarter and by 16 in the fourth in Boston.

The Knicks lead the reigning NBA champions 2-0 in the best-of-seven series after finishing 10 wins behind their opponents in the regular season.

"I got up there, heard the noise and then I just tried to block everything out. And then I made two," said Brunson - who finished the night with 17 points and a game-high seven assists - on his decisive foul shots.

Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 21 points and 17 rebounds for the Knicks, while Bridges scored all of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.

After coming back from 20 points down in an overtime win in game one, New York did not take the lead in game two until the last two minutes.

"We started slowly, got in a big hole, dug our way out and then guys made a lot of tough plays," said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau.

"[Our players] were at their best when their best was needed down the stretch."

Derrick White and Jaylen Brown each scored 20 points for the Celtics, who will travel to New York for game three on Saturday.

"They made the necessary plays to win," Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said of the Knicks.

"We put ourselves in position to do that and we just didn't make the plays."

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Thunder levelled their semi-final with a 149-106 home blowout win against the Denver Nuggets.

After losing on a three-pointer in the closing seconds of game one, Oklahoma City scored 45 points in the first quarter and tied the NBA play-off record for the most points in a half with 87.

MVP favourite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the game with 34 points before watching the fourth from the bench.

"We knew what was at stake tonight," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We came out desperate."

"I didn't really look at tonight as a response as much as I looked at tonight as just us being who we are, and that's how we've been all season," Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said.

After his 42-point performance in game one, Denver's Nikola Jokic tallied just 17 points and eight rebounds in game two before fouling out in the third quarter.

"We got punked," Denver interim coach David Adelman said.

"They came out with the right intensity and we didn't. We aren't just going to flush this. We have to play better and we know that."

Entering the second-round series in Boston, grabbing a split on the road in the first two games, and the Knicks steal homecourt advantage. Winning both games in dramatic fashion, with your opponent blowing 20-point leads in each of them for a 2-0 lead? Then you can start thinking about not having to return for Game 5.

“Going home and realizing the opportunity that we have, just gotta make sure we’re still locked in,” Jalen Brunson said after the Knicks’ 91-90 win over the Celtics in Game 2. “Know we’re close to being done, just make sure our mindset is the same.”

For Karl-Anthony Towns, who remembers taking a 2-0 lead at Denver last year with Minnesota in a series that eventually went seven games, the lead doesn’t amount to much.

“It means we up two zip, but it doesn’t really mean anything,” Towns said before mentioning the Nuggets won the next two games on the road to even the series. “We can’t take anything for granted, we gotta find ourselves executing at a higher level. We can’t keep doing these 20-point leads for Boston and hope to come back and win the game. 

“We gotta play better, we gotta shoot better, we gotta execute better. We can’t start having that Knicks basketball being played down 20, we gotta start the game that way and finish the game that way.”

Before Game 2, head coach Tom Thibodeau said a “big challenge of the playoffs" is dealing with emotions and not looking past the next game.

“There are a lot of emotional highs, lows, and then the challenge is to reset the next day," he said. "And don’t get caught up in playing a series, you gotta focus on the task at hand, which is to win the game. Reset and focus on the things that you have to do to win that next game.”

"The jobs not done," Mitchell Robison, who was a team high plus-19 during 22 minutes Wednesday, said. "We just gonna leave it at that and continue to play basketball.

Boston’s Jaylen Brown, who scored 17 of his 20 points in Game 2 in the first half, said the defending champs “can get back in this thing no question.”

“Being down 0-2 it sucks, but we got a great group,” he said. “We just gotta come out, be a little bit more poised, take a deep breath, convert our opportunities – we missed layups, easy baskets – take advantage. 

“Two games we were up 20 points somehow ended up not with wins. It’s inexcusable, but we gonna learn from it, we gonna respond.”

How are the Celtics planning on shaking off back-to-back blown big second-half leads? “In a way, it kinda takes all the pressure off of us, no?” KristapsPorzingis said. “If you check the odds, maybe the Knicks are the favorites now to win. Who knows?

"We were expected to win, so for us to be in this hole right now, with our backs against the wall, we have nothing to lose. We got to go out there and leave it all out on the floor."

Do the Celtics feel like they’re on the ropes? 

“We’re definitely in a tough situation,” Porznigis said. “Down 2-0, but again, I’ve been in this situation on both sides, there’s a lot of basketball still to play, the momentum can change.”

Brown called it an “opportunity to show what we’re made of.”

“Not ideal situation being down 0-2,” he said. “But what’s done is done, we gotta make sure we’re ready to come out, make sure my guys are ready to come out Game 3. I think we due for a lot of makes. I think that we have a lot of great shots [Wednesday night] that didn’t go in. 

“We just gotta relax, take a deep breath, come out and play Celtic basketball. Just like we down 0-2, we can tie this thing up.” 

After shooting 25-for-100 from three and 29-for-93 after halftime in the first two games, Porzingis said the Celtics need to play with more “urgency.”

“It sucks really bad right now,” Porzingis said, “but we got a lot of basketball to play and let’s see where this goes.”