Warriors guard Stephen Curry sidesteps ankle injury scare
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Stephen Curry was limited to 43 games last season, with much of the time missed because of a lingering knee injury.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Golden State Warriors expect to have star guard Stephen Curry on the floor when they open the NBA season against the host Los Angeles Lakers on the evening of Oct 21 (Oct 22, Singapore time).
The four-time NBA champion injured his right ankle during a scrimmage on Oct 18 but was a full participant in practice on the morning of Oct 19.
“He’s fine,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “He practised fully.”
One day earlier, Curry was dribbling when he had a misstep and stopped and then banged the basketball on the floor before heading to the bench.
The 38-year-old seemed to respond well to treatment.
The Warriors will not have forward Jimmy Butler III and Moses Moody at the outset of the season owing to knee injuries, while centre Kristaps Porzingis is out with a health issue. Guard Brandin Podziemski missed practice on Oct 19 with a back issue and is considered questionable for the opener.
Curry was limited to 43 games last season, with much of the time missed because of a lingering knee injury. Still, he averaged 26.6 points, 4.4 made three-pointers and 11.3 attempted three-pointers per game – all above his career averages.
Curry has a career scoring average of 24.8 points. He holds the NBA career marks for three-pointers made (4,248) and attempted (10,073) and for makes (402) in a season.
The Warriors compiled a 37-45 regular-season record and missed the play-offs for the second time in three seasons. While they are looking to turn things around, the Atlanta Hawks will try to pick up where they left off last season when they travel to Orlando for their season opener on Oct 21.
The Hawks were one of the hottest teams in the second half, winning 19 of their last 24 games to finish 46-36 atop the Southeast Division.
Atlanta pushed the New York Knicks to six games in the first round, something no other play-off team were able to do against the eventual NBA champions.
The Magic have a new coach in Sean Sweeney, replacing Jamahl Mosley, who took the team to the play-offs in the last three seasons of his five-year run.
The roster remains virtually the same as the one that went 45-37 and fought their way through the play-in tournament before relinquishing a 3-1 lead and losing to Detroit in the first round of the play-offs.
The biggest roster addition is Nikola Vucevic, who averaged 17.8 points per game in parts of nine seasons with the Magic. He spent the final part of 2025-26 with Boston before signing a one-year free-agent deal to rejoin Orlando.
Atlanta swept the four-game season series against Orlando last season, winning by an average of 15 points.
Atlanta shipped star guard Trae Young to the Washington Wizards at last season’s trade deadline and put their faith in Jalen Johnson to be the face of the team. Johnson averaged 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists and was named to his first All-Star team.
“I think leadership is something the team wants to see and one I want to do,” the 24-year-old said.
“I want to be one of those guys they can call aside from basketball and have that type of impact with my teammates and have that type of relationship with me.” REUTERS