There’s really no way to dress up what the Stephen Curry injury means for the Warriors. Depending on the length of time he’s out with a shoulder injury—one that sounds like it will sideline him for at least a few weeks—Golden State could be in real trouble in and around the back end of the Western Conference playoff race.
Even before sourced reports claimed that Curry was poised to miss a number of weeks due to the shoulder malady, the Warriors stood at 14–15 on the season with a challenging slate of contests in the near future. They have one of the 10 hardest remaining schedules in the league, and over the next two weeks, seven of Golden State’s next eight opponents are clubs that would currently make the postseason, either as a play-in participant or as a top six seed. (The Warriors’ next four games—all against teams solidly in the Eastern Conference postseason race—are on the road, where Golden State is a worst-in-the-West 2–13 so far.) If you stretch Curry’s absence out closer to the one-month mark, things soften again by the end of that stretch, as Detroit, Orlando, San Antonio, Chicago and Washington—all outside the top 10 in either conference—would be on the docket should Curry need to rehabilitate for that long.
Regardless of who the Warriors are facing, though, without Curry, there is no such thing as an easy foe. To this point in the season, Golden State is a whopping 17.8 points better per 100 possessions offensively when Curry is on the floor; a differential that ranks in the league’s 100th percentile. With Steph, the Warriors’ offense notches what would be an NBA-record 120.8 points per 100; without him, the Golden State offense is a slog, and grinds out what would be equivalent to a league-worst 103.8 points per 100. Because of that, it’s not hard to imagine the Dubs—0–3 this season without Curry, and just 24–66 (26.6% win percentage) without him in the past three-plus campaigns—stinking up the joint without their franchise player available.
