After notching 12 wins in a 16-game stretch to climb up the standings, the Golden State Warriors are starting to face adversity once more. On Friday against the Dallas Mavericks, they again leaned on the brilliance of a 37-year-old Stephen Curry in an attempt to salvage any momentum left after Jimmy Butler’s season-ending ACL tear.
Now riding a two-game losing streak, The Chef paced the Warriors with 38 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist in their 123-115 loss to the Mavs.
“It’s no secret this is difficult for everyone to accept the reality of what’s going on,” Curry told reporters postgame. “As long as I’m out there, I’m always confident we can win,” he added.
Chef Curry Continues to Cook
Despite the loss, Curry showed no signs of slowing down in his 17th season in the league, increasing his averages to 27.1 points while shooting at a 46.8% clip.
The league’s all-time three-point leader also set a new shooting milestone, becoming the first player in NBA history to attempt 10,000 threes.
A recently minted NBA All-Star, Curry might have to shoot a lot more moving forward, as the entire Warriors offense will now run through The Chef once again.
The Injury List Extends
As if Butler’s injury wasn’t bad enough, Golden State took another blow to its lineup, as it lost Jonathan Kuminga to an injury.
Despite recently demanding a trade, Kuminga was just about to return to the rotation amidst Butler’s absence when he twisted his ankle midway through the second quarter, prompting an early exit.
“Such a shame. He was playing great. That definitely hurt us, not having him available for the second half,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
The injury-plagued Warriors will now have to make the most out of their depleted lineup, as they enter a killer stretch: 10 of their next 11 games are against winning teams, starting with a home-and-home against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
