Stephen Curry Out at Least Two Weeks With Oblique Tear

Stephen Curry will miss at least two weeks after an MRI revealed an oblique abdominal tear, the Golden State Warriors announced on Thursday, halting one of the finest starts to a season in the 38-year-old’s 18-year NBA career.

The Warriors said Curry will be re-evaluated in two weeks. They gave no return date, and the two-week figure is the point at which the team will next assess the injury, not a promise that he will play again then.

How the injury happened

Curry left Wednesday night’s 115-108 defeat at the Houston Rockets with 6:25 remaining in the first quarter, grabbing at his right side above the hip. He had scored three points, from a single three-pointer, in about five and a half minutes on the court before leaving.

He was ruled out for the rest of the game in the second quarter and sent for an MRI during the second half. The defeat ended Golden State’s eight-game winning streak.

Head coach Steve Kerr said after the game that Curry had told him the pain was something he had never felt before, and described the level of concern as “high”. The MRI confirmed the worst of those fears: a tear, rather than the soreness the team had first reported.

What the Warriors lose

Curry had been playing at an elite level. He is averaging 27.8 points in 10 games this season, and making 45.7 per cent of his three-point attempts, which would be the best mark of his career if he sustained it, the Associated Press reported.

The timing makes the loss sharper. Golden State lost its first three games of the season, then won eight in a row behind Curry to reach 8-4. The Warriors are 1-2 in games in which Curry either does not play or has to leave early through injury.

Curry is the NBA’s all-time three-point leader, a 12-time All-Star, a four-time champion and a two-time Most Valuable Player. He passed Oscar Robertson on the NBA’s all-time scoring list earlier this month, becoming the second-highest scoring point guard in league history.

A familiar test for Golden State

Injuries have already shaped Curry’s recent seasons. He missed 39 games last season, 27 of them with a nagging knee injury, according to AFP.

Oblique injuries have a wide range of recovery times in the NBA. Paolo Banchero missed 34 games with an oblique injury last season, while the most recent examples of similar injuries have put the return-to-play timeline at around two to three weeks, NBC Sports reported.

ESPN reported that sources told its reporter Shams Charania the Warriors are bracing for Curry to be out closer to a month, with a possible window of two to four weeks. That remains a report rather than a team announcement, and Golden State has confirmed only the two-week re-evaluation.

What happens next

The two-week timetable means Curry will miss at least six games, starting with Friday’s trip to San Antonio, the Associated Press reported. ESPN reported he will miss at least the next seven games.

The absence will test a roster that has leaned heavily on its star. The Lakers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 123-112 on the same night to reach 11-2, the best record in the league, and the gap between Golden State and the Western Conference leaders will be harder to close without Curry.

For now, the Warriors can only wait. The re-evaluation in two weeks will give the first clear indication of whether this is a short interruption to a remarkable season, or the start of a longer absence. Lindsey Vonn underwent a ninth operation after her Olympic crash, a reminder that the hardest part of an injury is often not the diagnosis, but the weeks of waiting that follow it.