Steph Curry Is Just Being Overly Cautious Because The Warriors Are Playing The Rockets, Right?

Stephen Curry: "Based on how I feel right now, I shouldn't play. That could change tomorrow."

— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) April 20, 2016

Let's be clear, I am not saying that Steph Curry is sitting out when he should be playing. I know his ankle is banged up and - at this point - the risk of injuring it further isn't worth the reward. However, that's only because the "reward" is playing against a Rockets team that has absolutely no chance of beating this Warriors team - no matter how shorthanded they are. Is the risk that detrimental, or is the reward more paltry than the shirt that you caught out of the t-shirt cannon that's three sizes too small? I don't know if Curry would be playing if this was a 1-1 series with the Spurs, Thunder, or even Clippers, but I do know he wouldn't be preemptively ruling himself out a day before he had to. No athlete ever does this, and they certainly don't do it in the postseason. Any other opponent and Steph Curry just gives the canned answer we have all heard thousands of times: "we'll see how it feels tomorrow". That "I'm almost definitely not playing but..." wasn't even remotely necessary. There have been athletes limping around on crutches 6 hours prior to tipoff that play it by ear more than Steph Curry just did. For all intents and purposes, he made a game time implication 24 hours before game time. When a player as important as Steph Curry misses a game because of an injury that has a recovery time of day-to-day the suspense is supposed to build up until the broadcast starts, not be all but decided by yesterday's broadcast. 

Furthermore, when this happens in the postseason we are supposed to be a lot more concerned. Credit to the Rockets for playing such shitty basketball that we are hardly worried about the best player in the world's temporary absence from the lineup. Good work James Harden, you've failed everyone so badly that Steph Curry is treating playoff games like Allen Iverson treated practice.