Why the Entire NBA Playoffs Could Hinge on Stephen Curry’s Ankle

Stephen Curry’s mysterious ankle is injecting uncertainty into his team, a season and an ongoing playoff race whose fates have felt predetermined since November.

The latest news is good, with Tuesday’s MRI revealing nothing of concern, per Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group and Curry telling Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group: “Yeah I’m playing (in Game 3 Thursday). I’ll put it like this: I don’t see any scenario where I am not playing.”

The MRI and Curry’s confidence help stabilize the situation a bit, but there’s still something strange going on here.

No swelling? Weird.

This, from ESPN.com’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss? Weird…and terrifying.

If you like gulping in fear, there’s this Kerr quote on Curry from pregame pic.twitter.com/CUkZElIiIl

— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) April 19, 2016

A frustrating abbreviated warm-up before Game 2, ended by a right-foot pivot, a grimace and a trip back down the tunnel?

Yes, also weird.

Head coach Steve Kerr called it a foot injury, then an ankle, then both, telling reporters after Game 2: “I don’t know. Honestly, it’s both. I mean I’m not sure I know the difference. It’s the back of his foot, it’s the ankle, it’s something down there.”

Something seems amiss, right?

And it won’t stop seeming that way unless and until Curry suits up, hits seven or eight threes and looks like the willowy, spring-loaded basketball assassin he’s been all season.

So for now, whether Curry plays in Game 3 or not, there are suddenly all these crazy alternate universes to consider—ones that will only exist as long as Curry is something other than certainly healthy and the Warriors are something other than absolute, dead-set, locked-in favorites. The possibilities are vast.

The West Gets Wilder

Vast…within reason.

The Houston Rockets aren’t going to beat the Warriors in this first round. They’re in a 0-2 hole and proved in Game 2 that they didn’t have enough in the chemistry, defense or effort department to beat a watered-down version of the Warriors missing half their Splash.

The Dubs are advancing unless Dwight Howard starts caring, James Harden starts defending and the rest of the Rockets get, I don’t know, like, good? So no. Just…no.

But what of the second round? Suppose Curry doesn’t play at all against either Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers or Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers smacked the Dubs by a final of 137-105 on Feb. 19 with Curry playing, so we know they have it in them. And the Clips actually played Golden State close for long stretches this season before either surrendering huge comebacks or stumbling at the finish.

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