Warriors’ Steve Kerr reveals Stephen Curry minutes plan for play-in game vs. Clippers

LOS ANGELES – With the Golden State Warriors’ season on the line Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers in the dreaded play-in game, it’s do-or-die time for a team that’s been through a season from hell.

But while the Warriors have set their full focus on extending their season, it doesn’t take precedence over managing the health of Stephen Curry.

After the Dubs’ regular-season finale, coach Steve Kerr made it clear that Curry, along with Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis, will remain on a minutes restriction, despite the stakes of the play-in game. With all three veterans still recovering from their respective injuries, the Warriors will not push their minutes and risk damaging their long-term health.

“I don’t know exactly what the number will be,” Kerr said. “But those guys, they’re not going to play 40 minutes, I can tell you that.”

Curry has played in four games since returning from the patellofemoral pain syndrome and bone bruising injury in his right knee, logging 26, 25, 27, and 29 minutes in those outings.

So on one hand, the two-time MVP is slowly coming along in terms of his conditioning and his workload. On the other hand, that nagging knee issue cost him two months and 27 games of his season, hence the Warriors’ caution.

That doesn’t mean the Warriors plan on completely capping Curry’s minutes. At the team’s Monday practice, Kerr spoke more on how far the Warriors are willing to stretch his minutes at this point in his post-injury timeline.

“I think he’s had four games now where he stretched almost up to 30 last night,” Kerr said. “So with the two days off, he should be able to get at least that, and then hopefully some more.”

Other notables from the Warriors’ Monday practice

Curry and Porzingis are the two-man combination the Warriors have been dying to maximize. The one problem is that they haven’t gotten much time to develop that rhythm and chemistry. After practice, Porzingis talked about how that process is coming along, given the lack of time they’ve had together.

“I think each game is a little bit better,” Porzingis said. “Obviously, it’s not perfect from the get go, but, but also, we barely got any time together, you know, it’s just hard to develop, you know? Some crazy place playing only 14 minutes together.”

Porzingis did not seem worried about having to find that chemistry on the fly in the play-in. He cited how playing off of Curry’s makes things easy for him and how their conversations over the last week have been helpful.

“So it’s a process, and I’m learning stuff and picking up on these things, and I’m talking to him and letting him know what I like and this and that. And, yeah, I wish, I wish we had more time. I wish we had more time. Maybe we can make more time, you know. So it’s in our hands.”

Kerr also hinted at how they’ll use Draymond Green against Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers. He talked the pros and cons of having him as the primary defender on Leonard versus using him as a free safety.

“You can put him on anybody. Doesn’t matter, point guard, center, wing, and he’s going to do a good job on those people,” Kerr said. “The negative is that he doesn’t play center field.”

Aside from that, the Warriors seem poised as they sit in the calm before the storm. Everyone came out of the regular season relatively healthy. All that’s left is to wait and prepare.

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