Kerr: ‘No way’ Curry plays in Round 1 of playoffs

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr revealed on Sunday that Stephen Curry’s left knee injury will keep the star point guard out of the first round of the NBA playoffs.

“There’s no way he’s playing in the first round,” Kerr said prior to the Warriors’ Sunday night game against the Utah Jazz. “There’s no way. I mean, he’ll be re-evaluated in three weeks. So, yeah, we have to be ready to play without him and see how he’s coming along.”

The team announced on Saturday that Curry — who was injured Friday in a win over the Atlanta Hawks — had sustained a Grade 2 sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his left knee and would be re-evaluated in three weeks. The playoffs are set to begin April 14, three weeks and one day after the injury occurred.

Curry, 30, was playing in his first game since missing six contests with an aggravation of a previous injury to his troublesome right ankle. He appeared to have fully recovered from that injury, scoring 29 points in 25 minutes against the Hawks before teammate JaVale McGee fell back onto his left leg.

Each of the Warriors’ other All-Stars is dealing with an injury as well: Kevin Durant has fractured right rib cartilage, Klay Thompson has a broken right thumb and Draymond Green is nursing a pelvic contusion.

“The good thing is we’ve been through this,” Kerr said. “We’ve went through it last year with KD. … It wasn’t exactly the same timeline, but it was a similar injury and similar circumstances where we had to play without one of our best players. And we felt that appropriate fear and turned it up and got it going and then when KD came back, Finals MVP after missing six weeks. So, there’s a lot of similarities here and I think we should feel good about our ability to play through this stuff.

“And we also know that Steph has a history of coming back strong from injuries. So, there’s a good chance, if all goes well, that he comes back during the playoffs at some point and we’re at full steam. So, that’s the goal and that’s our plan.”

Curry missed 15 days during the 2016 playoffs with a Grade 1 MCL sprain, with the team going 4-2 in the six games he sat out. He averaged 29.3 points, 6.7 assists and 6.4 rebounds per game in his first nine games after returning from that injury before struggling in the NBA Finals, which the Warriors lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

–Field Level Media