{"id":75525,"date":"2016-05-07T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T14:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=75525"},"modified":"2016-05-07T10:44:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T14:44:00","slug":"curry-returns-practice-still-unlikely-play-game-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/05\/07\/curry-returns-practice-still-unlikely-play-game-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Curry returns to practice, still unlikely to play Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stephen<\/a>
Stephen Curry returned to practice to test his sprained knee and was strong in his lateral movement though the team didn’t scrimmage at all. (Instagram photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OAKLAND, Calif. \u2013 Golden State superstar Stephen Curry zipped around the court bouncing from spot to spot during his typical extensive post-practice shooting routine, driving to the basket past his regular practice coach Bruce Fraser.<\/p>\n

Curry looked much like his healthy self except for a brace covering his injured right knee.<\/p>\n

He returned to practice Friday to test his sprained knee and was strong in his lateral movement though the team didn\u2019t scrimmage at all. And the Warriors still considered him doubtful to play in Saturday\u2019s Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals at Portland.<\/p>\n

Coach Steve Kerr reiterated Friday that Curry was unlikely to play despite going through part of practice. Kerr was surprised to see reports of Curry being ruled out based on a radio interview he had given earlier in the day on the \u201cDan Patrick Show.\u201d Kerr said he should have been clearer that he meant \u201cprobably\u201d out.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was by far the best he looked,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cHe\u2019s made progress each day. He took part on the court in a practice today. We didn\u2019t scrimmage but we did a lot of defensive work, five-on-oh, full-court shooting stuff. He took part in all of it and he looked much, much better than he did even two days ago. It\u2019s a great sign, but we still want to see him in a three-on-three, a five-on-five. I don\u2019t think that will happen by tomorrow at 5:30 Portland time… I don\u2019t see him playing tomorrow\u201d<\/p>\n

Curry and the Warriors practiced in the Bay Area before an afternoon flight to Oregon. Kerr had said a day earlier that the reigning MVP was unlikely to play because he hadn\u2019t yet practiced or done any scrimmaging to test the knee \u2013 so scrimmaging is the next, perhaps final step before Curry\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

Kerr said Curry would be part of any conversations when it\u2019s time for a decision to be made for him to get back in a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever we end up doing with him will be through his consultation, with his agreement, and we\u2019ll figure it out together,\u201d Kerr said.<\/p>\n

The defending champion Warriors lead the best-of-seven series against Portland 2-0. Curry also is considered doubtful for Monday night’s Game 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of takes some pressure off Steph and his rehab in a way where he\u2019s not like, \u2018Shoot, we\u2019re down 2-0, or it\u2019s 1-1, I need to come back and play,\u2019\u201d center Andrew Bogut said. \u201cIt buys us a little bit more time if anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curry returned from an ankle injury only to injure his knee April 24 when he slipped on a wet spot just before halftime of a Game 4 win at Houston in the first round of the playoffs. He sustained a Grade 1 sprain to the MCL in his knee.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Steph, he has to think about his future. He has to think about his rhythm. When I say future, I\u2019m talking about beyond this year,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cHow long will it take him to feel 100 percent? While he\u2019s going through that, what\u2019s his body going to feel like? And we have to think about what\u2019s he going to look like, what\u2019s he going to do to our rotation? Ironically enough, you don\u2019t think about that usually with the MVP. But it\u2019s the playoffs, it\u2019s the highest level of basketball on earth. Throw a guy out there at 75 percent, it changes everything. So there\u2019s all kinds of factors here and dynamics. The great thing with Steph, he\u2019s smart, he\u2019s easy to talk to and reason with.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Warriors miss his league-leading 30.1 points per game, remarkable range and playmaking ability, they have dominated without their superstar point guard despite needing a fourth-quarter rally in Tuesday\u2019s Game 2 at Oracle Arena.<\/p>\n

Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts was still skeptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see if he doesn\u2019t play tomorrow,\u201d Stotts said laughing. \u201cWe\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Anne M. Peterson contributed to this report from Portland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. \u2013 Golden State superstar Stephen Curry zipped around the court bouncing from spot to spot during his typical …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":70045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,44],"tags":[10632,10634,10633],"class_list":["post-75525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-sports","tag-curry","tag-golden-state","tag-stephen-curry","mauthors-janie-mccauley","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}