The Golden State Warriors were already suffering from a championship hangover, and now they’ll face another obstacle. On Thursday, the Warriors said Steph Curry has a subluxation of his left shoulder and “a timeline for his return will be provided in the coming days.” Curry was injured while playing defense in a 125-119 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. News of the injury has implications for the Warriors’ NBA Championship odds.
Steph went to the locker room after appearing to injure his left shoulder on this play pic.twitter.com/FNFcSh8YrK
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 15, 2022
Warriors Championship Odds Following Steph Curry Injury
The defending champion Warriors have come out of the gates 14-15 and are 10th in the Western Conference. They began the season behind just the Boston Celtics at +600 to win the NBA Championship. After their slow start, coupled with Curry’s injury, they now sit at +750 (per DraftKings).
Curry continued to play at an MVP level despite the Warriors' woes. He was averaging 30.0 ppg (sixth in the NBA) to go along with 6.8 assists and 6.6 rebounds per game.
To say the Curry loss serves as a gut-punch to the Warriors would be an understatement. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Warriors were outscoring opponents by 8.4 points per 100 possessions when Curry was on the floor. Without him, they were being outscored by 9.8 per 100. Additionally, the Warriors have a well-known Achilles heel with their bench play, ranking last in the NBA in terms of aggregate net rating with that unit.
The Warriors will now lean more on young guard Jordan Poole, who likely will remain in the starting lineup even when Andrew Wiggins returns from an abductor injury. Poole has gone through a bit of a shooting slump in recent games but managed 17.9 ppg playing in a secondary role to Curry. The absence of Curry will likely also mean more minutes for backup guard Ty Jerome, who has averaged just 4.8 ppg while playing 14.4 minutes per game.
The Warriors have four more games on their road trip -- at the Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets -- before they return home to take on the Memphis Grizzlies on Christmas Day, a game that will undoubtedly carry less intrigue without Curry on the floor.
Perhaps losing Curry will provide the Warriors an opportunity to grow their role players without the star power leading the way. But looking at the situation with anything other than an extremely optimistic point of view, the Steph Curry injury is just another hit in a disappointing start to the season.
