The Golden State Warriors‘ playoff run is in serious jeopardy after Stephen Curry prematurely exited Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday with a left hamstring strain.
Curry scored 13 points in 13 minutes to lift the Warriors to a 44-31 halftime lead.
The Warriors ruled him out for the rest of the game. And there is a grim chance he could miss the rest of the series.
Dr. Nirav Pandya, a professor at the Orthopedic Surgery department of the University of California, San Francisco and director of sports medicine at Benioff Children’s Hospital, said the minimum missed time for hamstring injuries in the NBA is six games based on a study he was part of.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that Stephen Curry will be gone for six games,” Dr. Pandya said.
Dr. Evan Jeffries, an NBA and NFL injury expert and owner of the San Diego-based Evolving Motion Physical Therapy, also outlined a typical recovery timeline for hamstring strain.
“This is the worst case scenario in a playoff series,” Dr. Jeffries wrote on X about Curry’s hamstring strain. “Typical timeline of healing is Grade I: 7-10 days and Grade II: 3-6 weeks.”
Warriors Warned Against Rushing Steph Curry Back
Curry’s return to play will be determined by the grade of his hamstring strain, location of the strain, the number of hamstring muscles involved, cross cross-sectional area involved and the degree of swelling, according to Dr. Pandya.
Curry will have an MRI to determine the severity of his hamstring strain.
A grade 1 strain is a micro tear, grade 2 is a partial tear and grade 3 is a complete tear.
Dr. Pandya warned that rushing Curry to return might lead to other injuries.
“They need to make sure that [Curry] has full mobility and strength when they’re on the court, which is particularly important for a player like Stephen Curry,” Dr. Pandya explained. “Now, the reason why you don’t want to rush back hamstring strain is that there’s a high rate of re-injury if you come back too early. In addition, there’s a high rate of additional injuries to the other parts of the body if your hamstring is not very secure or strong enough to come back on the court.”
Quick halftime video for #DubNation on the left hamstring strain that was reported by the team that Stephen Curry suffered. There are multiple factors that determine the return to play timeline that the medical staff will determine based on exam, imaging, and risk of re-injury. pic.twitter.com/6CxpaOcamu
— Dr. Nirav Pandya, M.D. (@DrNiravPandya) May 7, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Klay Thompson’s 2019 ACL Tear Serves as Cautionary Tale
The Warriors need not look far.
Curry’s former running mate, Klay Thompson, suffered a mild hamstring strain in Game 2 of the 2019 NBA Finals. Thompson sat out Game 2, then returned in Game 3. He played at an elite level until he tore his ACL in Game 6, which hastened the Warriors’ Finals loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Without Curry, the Warriors will heavily lean on Jimmy Butler to lead them.
The 36-year-old Curry averaged 24.0 points on a 47/40/90 shooting split, 5.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.1 steals in the Warriors’ first-round win over the No. 2 seed Houston Rockets.
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