SAN FRANCISCO – The greatest player in Warriors franchise history sniffled, and then he coughed. Then he coughed again, and again, and again during a laborious five-minute postgame press conference on Tuesday night.
Obviously feeling the effects of a cold that has beset him for several days, Steph Curry did his best to convince those listening that he might play the next day in Sacramento after scoring 28 points in a victory over the Phoenix Suns.
“Obviously, it would take a lot for me not to play,” Curry said between hacks. “With the way it’s been going and how the schedule has been, obviously we’re going to monitor it and see how it goes.”
On the other hand, Warriors coach Steve Kerr did not have to see anymore after his exhausted star gutted out 34 minutes in the 118-107 win.
“He’s wiped out right now,” Kerr said. “I don’t care what the doctor says. We’ve got to get him some rest. So I’ll make the decision right now. He’s not going to play. He needs some rest.”
Though Curry paced the team in points, his condition was obvious to teammates.
“I saw him struggle to get his breath,” Quinten Post said. “But he battled through it, and he was still huge for us.”
The Warriors saddled an ailing Curry with an even heavier load in the second half once Jimmy Butler was ruled out with a lower back injury.
Kerr said the 36-year-old forward “tweaked” his back and was listed as questionable for Sacramento. Heand Draymond Green (33 minutes) may not play in the second leg of a back-to-back.
That trio had played in all seven games entering Tuesday’s showdown with the Suns.
But with the veterans likely relegated to spectators in the state’s capital city, and in future games down the road, comes an opportunity for other Warriors to enjoy expanded roles.
Take Brandin Podziemski, who scored 13 points off the bench. Though he has been used mostly as an off-the-ball scoring guard next to Curry and Butler, he will take on more responsibility without them.
“He, for sure, will have a lot of on-ball responsibility,” Kerr said.
But so will Jonathan Kuminga, who is averaging a career-high 17.4 points per game while embracing a more well-rounded role, and sparkplug Pat Spencer.
Such games, to some degree, could become a regular occurrence for the Warriors as they attempt to keep their aging stars fresh during an 82-game marathon.
“These games are great opportunities for a lot of guys,” Kerr said.
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