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Never was Stephen Curry's impact more clearly illustrated than when the Golden State Warriors struggled to even compete against the Minnesota Timberwolves without him. Curry was sidelined with a hamstring strain for all but 13 minutes of the Warriors' five-game elimination in the Western Conference semifinals, and the team sputtered to an anemic 104 points per 100 possessions during his absence. Midseason acquisition Jimmy Butler simply wasn't equipped to be the alpha that Golden State needed with Curry on the sideline, and it resulted in a second-round playoff exit at the hands of the Wolves.
After dispatching the No. 2 Houston Rockets in a seven-game first-round series, the Warriors certainly seemed like they had the mettle to make a deep playoff run. With Curry at the peak of his powers -- 24 points, six rebounds and six assists per game on 47/39/89 shooting splits in the Houston series -- and Butler filling in the gaps, Golden State's prospects seemed bright in an unpredictable Western Conference landscape.
But then Curry came up injured in Game 1 against Minnesota, and any realistic chance at a title limped off the court with him.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr doesn't have to sit back and wonder "what if?" He's convinced that the Warriors could have won the championship with a healthy Curry, and he said as much following Golden State's 121-110 Game 5 loss on Wednesday.
"I know we had a shot. I know we could have gone the distance," Kerr said of the Warriors with a healthy Curry. "Maybe we wouldn't have, but it doesn't matter. Again, everything in the playoffs is about who stays healthy and who gets hot. You know, are you playing well at the right time? Do you have multiple guys step up in key games, make shots, and do you have good health? You see it every year in every series. So, there's a little bit of luck involved, and like I said, we've been on both sides of that, and that's just part of it."
Kerr has won nine total championships as a player and coach, so he knows a little something about what it takes to get to the pinnacle. We don't like to admit what a large part luck plays in winning titles, but a look at this postseason alone shows how crucial health is. Curry, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Bucks guard Damian Lillard all suffered significant injuries that impacted their teams' postseasons, while Luka Dončić was clearly hampered by multiple ailments in the Los Angeles Lakers' first-round exit.
It's never an excuse because every team deals with it, but injuries are an inevitably ugly part of the game this time of year.
Even with Curry, the Warriors faced an uphill battle to get back to the Finals. The Wolves have been playing as well as any team in the league for the past two months, and even if Golden State got past them, they'd face either the league's best team in the Oklahoma City Thunder or a Denver Nuggets team equipped with the best basketball player on the planet in Nikola Jokić.
It would have been fun to see how far Curry could carry a team that so heavily relied upon him, but instead the Warriors will have to wait until next season, when they hope Curry, Butler and Draymond Green -- barring any drastic offseason moves -- can give them one more shot at glory. That is, if they can all stay healthy.
