How much safe time does the Warriors have after a first-degree strain?

For the Warriors, the current semi-final results are no longer bad. Of course, we know that after getting Butler in the middle of the season, the Warriors are no longer the team that has no hope outside Curry. Perhaps in the regular season, under the complete system of the Warriors, relying on the puzzle ability of role players and Cole's basic coaching base, the Warriors can still maintain basic competitiveness.

Considering the regular season record, there is no gap between the Warriors and the Timberwolves strictly speaking.

But the key was in the first game of the semi-finals. After only two minutes of the second quarter, Curry made a difficult three-pointer under the strict defense of the top lock McDaniels. He was originally gritting his braces and looking relaxed. In the subsequent round of defense, he obviously felt uncomfortable, holding his left thigh with his hand. After the subsequent offensive throwing missed, he directly signaled to the team's bench for substitution, and then he left the court and never came back.

Of course, the Warriors finally defeated the Timberwolves stubbornly, which was also the so-called not bad result at the beginning, but judging from the subsequent injuries, the Warriors may have to spend more time on Curry's injury.

According to the information disclosed today, Curry's left leg injury was diagnosed as a first-degree hamstring strain, and it is currently confirmed that the second game of the series will not be played. There have been too many cases of first-degree hamstring strains like Curry before the playoffs, and there have been two star guards, Harden and Booker, in the past four years alone.

Harden, who played for the Nets in 2021, left the court due to a hamstring strain at the start of the first match against the Bucks and returned to the team in the fifth game, but the Nets eventually lost to the Bucks 3-4. Booker was injured in the third quarter of the second and third quarters against the Pelicans in the first round of 2022. He later returned to the team in the sixth game to help the Suns advance in the first round. Unfortunately, he fought seven hard games against the Mavericks in the second round, ruining the two-win advantage in the first two games. He collapsed and lost a crushing defeat in the home court in the seventh game. As the leading team in the regular season that season, he was only stopped in the semi-finals.

Judging from previous cases, referring to Booker's old cases of hamstring strain almost every year, every first-degree strain is almost two weeks off for safety. But looking at the two emergencies between Booker and Harden, both of them returned to the team after resting for more than a week and three playoff games. However, judging from their performance after returning to the team, as star scorers in the league at that time, there was a significant gap in their performance after their comeback.

After returning to the team that year, Harden played in the last three games. From the fifth to the seventh game, Harden scored only 11 goals in a total of 36 shots, with a shooting percentage of over 30%, and only 5 goals in 26 shots, even less than 20% of the shooting percentage.

For Booker, he made a shot into the key outside line in his first game after returning to the team, but at that time he could only hold on until the last moment when his appearance load was significantly reduced, he only made 12 shots in 32 minutes and his physical fitness was reserved. In the second round, facing the Mavericks, Booker played almost the worst series performance in his career so far, with a shooting percentage of 43.2%, and averaging 23.4 points per game. In the sixth and seventh games of the series, he was 6 of 17 and 3 of 14 respectively, which was completely different from his performance in his health.

Referring to these two recent similar cases, it is obvious that after returning to the team after just one week of rest, Harden and Booker cannot return to the team at 100%. In the playoffs where the intensity of the confrontation has significantly improved, the two people who may not be able to withstand such confrontation intensity.

The same problem is now given to Curry and the Warriors. The good news is that after the Warriors won the first victory, even if they lost consecutively, there would be at least a fifth game in this series, but because the Warriors and the Rockets ended the latest in the first round. When the Warriors and the Rockets played in the seventh game, the first game of the Eastern Conference in the second round had already started, which also made the second round of the Warriors and the Timberwolves a slightly tight round of the series.

With the intensive schedule without extra rest days, there is only 8 days between the fifth and the first game. In other words, if Curry's absent goal is the same as Harden of that year, and he will be injured and retreated in the fifth game in the first game of the series, he will only have 7 days off, instead of resting 9 days like Harden of that year, or resting 8 days like Booker.

And another unfavorable news is that Harden was 32 years old when he was injured, Booker was 26 years old, and Curry is 37 years old this year. If Curry also wants to come back in the fifth game, he will return with less rest time than Harden and Booker. The first two have proved that under such strict rest time, it is obvious that under the best condition before the injury is not fully restored.

For the Warriors, the news that the Warriors Timberwolves had three days off between the fifth and sixth games of the Warriors. If they put Curry's return to the team in the sixth game of the series, he would get 11 days of rest, which was closer to the regular two-week rest time when a first-degree strain was injured. In this way, we might be looking forward to Curry's more. But the question is whether the Warriors have the ability to drag the series to the sixth game after losing Curry.

So, we had the initial evaluation. Although Curry was injured in the first game of the series, the team won the victory, which was at least not bad for the Warriors. As long as they can win another victory in the next game, at least we can expect Curry to return to the team successfully in the sixth game. If there is a sixth game, it means that the worst situation at that time was to fall behind the Timberwolves 2-3. If Kerr can find a new system to successfully operate the team in this unfavorable process, we can also have much greater expectations for the help Curry brings after returning to the team than Harden and Booker.

However, the Warriors must face up to a fact at present. The main reason why the Warriors can win the first game of the series is that the Timberwolves played extremely badly. Referring to the regular season and playoffs, the Timberwolves' offense this season is actually much better than last season. In the first game, it can be seen that Gobert's height does cause a lot of trouble to the Warriors in the small lineup, and Naz Reed, who takes into account both internal and external, is also a difficult point for the Warriors to face.

When Edwards reduced his outside shots in the second half and began to kill more in the penalty area, it was basically difficult for the Warriors to stop him at the front line with his current defense ability. When the Wolves put away Conley and put on the offensive Divinchenzo and the defensive Alexander Walker, the two would also cause quite difficult troubles to the Warriors.

For subsequent games, the Timberwolves' offense may not require a big explosion. As long as it is no longer completely collapsed like the first game of the series, referring to the offensive firepower of the Warriors' only scored 99 points in the first game, it may not be an easy task to win if they do not make any breakthrough in the offense.

Looking back at this year's playoffs, there are two obvious special phenomena so far. One is that even if you score a 20-point lead in the first three quarters, it is not safe at all. So far, there have been many turnaround scenes of 20-point leads and being reversed. The Pacers can even perform a shocking reversal when they fall behind by 7 points in less than a minute.

For the resilience of these backward sides, their immediate resilience, and the tenacious will of the star to shoulder the game, the leading side must definitely give enough respect, otherwise they may lose if they are not careful.

The second point is that from the current various battle situations, several key stars who have had championship experience or are considered to be able to dominate high-intensity games now seem to be gradually losing their dominance.

James was eliminated by the Timberwolves forward in the first round, Harden became weak after the front line was extended, Leonard did not have the ability to dominate the rhythm of the game in the life and death battle, Holiday had no restrictions on the backcourt against the Knicks in the second round, Klay Thompson and Davis were unable to pass the Grizzlies Youth Army, and Durant could not even enter the playoffs.

The only team that can be centered on senior players and can still pass the first round is the Warriors, but the Warriors' process of passing the first round is also quite difficult. Except for Curry and Butler playing the star advantage in the first game, the other three wins almost all require unexpected contributions from teammates to win, and the Rockets' own offense is already ups and downs.

To a certain extent, the success or failure of the Huo Yong in the first round does not seem to be entirely handled by the Warriors veterans. Although the Warriors have passed the first level, facing the subsequent higher-level opponents, if fans continue to miss the past honors of the veteran stars, it is definitely a red flag. The Warriors' situation is very simple now. After Butler successfully renews the contract, at least until 2027, they will still use Curry + Butler as the main line to win the championship. However, referring to the chaotic situation this season, it seems that even the Thunder, as the leader of the league, is not stable enough, and the Cavaliers and Celtics in the East have lost at home early.

Although the Warriors may not necessarily have more advantages than these strong teams, it is not necessarily impossible for the Warriors to break through when all teams are not stable enough.

Of course, in the next game without Curry, facing the wing frontcourt team with a Timberwolves above the Timberwolves' body level, the first thought at the moment may be to enable Kumingga, so that he can fight against the Timberwolves with a qualified wing figure and a certain level of finishing ability. However, judging from Kumingga's only performance at present, his performance is indeed a bit insufficient. But from the moment of looking, choosing Kumingga is the best choice to extend the series front and support Curry's return to the team.

Even if it is not suitable enough, the current Warriors can only take one step at a time.

can only be said that from working hard to extend the suspense of the series to maintaining the competition hope this season, or the long-term operation of the team in the future, re-selecting Kumingga and waiting for Curry to return to the team are the only direction the Warriors can expect, but they only need to worry about Curry's current injury and whether he can continue to maintain his best condition.

After clearly establishing the future direction in the middle of this season, more chips should still be needed in the next two years. The Warriors have basically no way back. The next step is to deal with the chips in their hands, especially the Kumingga part, and then start to sprint towards 2026 and 2027.