It’s no secret the Warriors hope to extend their Western Conference semifinals series against the Minnesota Timberwolves to Game 6.
Why? Because that would give injured superstar Steph Curry (left hamstring strain) a chance to return and potentially help Golden State, who trails Minnesota two games to one in the series, win out and advance to the next round.
Warriors guard Gary Payton II, who was mic’d up during Golden State’s 102-97 loss to Minnesota in Game 3 on Saturday at Chase Center, acknowledged as much while being playfully taunted by Timberwolves’ superstar guard Anthony Edwards.
“Y’all trying to get to a Game 6, get Wardell (Curry) back,” Edwards told Payton.
“That is the plan,” Payton responded with a smile.
Curry suffered his Grade 1 left hamstring strain in the second quarter of the Warriors’ Game 1 win on Tuesday at Target Center. Golden State put out an official update on Wednesday, stating Curry will be re-evaluated in one week (May 14) and would miss Games 2, 3 and 4 before Game 5 on Wednesday in Minnesota.
However, ESPN’s Shams Charania stated Friday on “The Pat McAfee Show” that his understanding is that Curry probably will not return until Game 6 at the earliest.
That would be 12 days from the time Curry initially sustained the injury, which is slightly longer than the estimate Stanford Medicine’s Marc Safran, M.D. gave to NBC Sports Bay Area in a recent interview.
If the Warriors are able to win one game without Curry, there’s a good chance Edwards’ assumption will be accurate.
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