SAN FRANCISCO — Following the Warriors’ first practice after the All-Star break, it took coach Steve Kerr all of three seconds to be lobbed a question about Steph Curry and his injured knee during Tuesday night’s press conference.
Curry has missed the past five games with runners’ knee, which is formally known as patellofemoral pain syndrome. He exited the loss to the Pistons on Jan. 30 and has not been on the court since.
He did spend time in Los Angeles for All-Star weekend, going viral for making a shot from the in-venue studio at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome, but Curry has spent most of his time recovering and did not participate in the game. The only way to heal from runner’s knee is rest.
Though the team practiced on Tuesday, Kerr gave veterans Curry, Draymond Green and Al Horford the night off. Before the break, Kerr had said that he hoped Curry and Porzingis will be able to play in the team’s first game after the break, which is Thursday against Boston.
He said he will wait until Curry practices on Wednesday to make a decision.
“That’s the hope, but we haven’t seen Steph yet,” Kerr said. “We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”
Although injuries have held him out of 16 games, Curry is still one of the top players in the NBA. In 39 games, Curry is averaging 27.2 points per game and leads the NBA in both 3-pointers made per game (4.5) and free throw percentage (93.1%).
Curry is not the only player who is expected to make his return later this week.
Kristaps Porzingis has not played in a game since Jan. 7, when he still suited up for the Atlanta Hawks. Although he was close to returning for Atlanta, the Warriors decided to hold Porzingis out after trading Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield for him.
Prior to the All-Star break, he played both 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 in practices, and then spent the break working out in San Francisco with the Warriors’ training staff to prepare him for a return to the court. Kerr said Porzingis has flashed high-level isolation scoring in practice, but also noted that the team needs to see him in a more game-like setting before they decide if he is ready to play.
“He’s feeling good, but we won’t make a determination until after we practice tomorrow afternoon,” Kerr said. “We’ll get up and down the floor and scrimmage, which we didn’t do today. we did more skill work and went over some things, so tomorrow, we’ll have a better feel for both those guys.”
Porzingis is averaging 17.1 points per game and is still a high-impact defender in limited minutes.
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