The Houston Rockets beat the Golden State Warriors 131-116 Wednesday night to extend their first-round series to a sixth game. Steph Curry shot just 4-12 for 13 points and played only 23 minutes in the game. One of the main topics of conversation afterward was the state of his injured thumb.
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Steph originally injured the thumb back in January, then sprained it again near the end of the regular season. And he has been playing with a wrap on it for protection.
Curry was asked about his thumb after Game 5, and though he said it isn’t impacting his play, the rest of the basketball world isn’t so sure. Last night was the third straight game that he shot under 40% from three-point range. And a recent photo of the unwrapped thumb looking huge and swollen. It left the fans worried.
The Inside the NBA crew couldn’t believe how bad it looked, Charles Barkley especially. “That doesn’t look like a human thumb!” Chuck exclaimed.
People on the internet had a similar reaction, with one X user making the grotesque yet funny comparison that “Curry’s hand looks like Shaq’s foot.”
Other than the fact that both Curry and Shaq are/were basketball players, there’s not a lot in common between the shooting genius and the dominant 7-footer. If any part of the comparatively diminutive Curry is being compared to something as big as Shaq’s size 22 foot, you know it has to be bad.
The Warriors need Curry to be healthy for Game 6, but he won’t have much time to rest up. It will be played at 9 p.m. ET on Friday.
Injured Curry is going against the worst possible opponent
Houston’s Dillon Brooks is known as one of the foremost pests in the NBA. If there’s a skirmish on the court, it’s probably due to something Brooks did. And to nobody’s surprise, he’s been attacking Steph’s thumb all series.
Videos have shown Brooks grabbing Curry’s hand and swatting at his thumb whenever Steph gets a shot up. He even seemed to tacitly confirm what he’d been doing when asked about it after Game 5.
“If you’re gonna come play the game injured, you know if I had an injured ankle, I would attack that ankle every single time, so whatever they’re saying on the broadcast, they can keep saying it,” Brooks said.
Steph is noticing it too, though he’s not sure what the refs could do about it.
“There’s a pattern when there’s full extension, when there’s a full point of release [when Steph shoots]. It’s hard for a ref, I get it. They’re trying to look at the body, look at the release, and where [the] contact is. There’s a subtle difference in how certain people do it,” said Curry.
Steph and the Warriors are going to have to grit their way through the pain and find a way to get past the Rockets. And the sooner the better.
The Timberwolves are waiting for them in the next round after they closed the LA Lakers out with a gentleman’s sweep Wednesday night. With top-notch defenders like Rudy Gobert, Anthony Edwards, and Jaden McDaniels, they’re not going to make things easy for Steph either, especially if he’s still nursing a sore thumb.
