After Hyper extending his knee last night Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors is out indefinitely and will go in for another check in four weeks. Durant extended the knee after team mate Za Za Pachulia rolled into it awkwardly. Though the next time we hear on Durant’s injury will be in 4 weeks the injury may be more serious than that. Durant could miss the rest of the regular season or worse the entire postseason.
With Durant out the reigning MVP Steph Curry will have to step up more than he has this year. Curry is averaging 24 points a game six points less than last year and is shooting 46% from the field. Which actually isn’t bad compared to his 50% shooting last year. Curry may look different from last year but if you look at his stats he really hasn’t declined that much. With Durant out of the offense expect Currys numbers to go up. Curry will be the key to keeping this team in the number one seed.
Who could challenge for that number one seed now though? If the Warriors fell off a bit who has the most to gain? The San Antonio Spurs are that team. If the Spurs were to hit a big run at anytime now would be that time. Just four games back from the Warriors it’s not crazy to think the Spurs could claw that number one seed out of the hands of the Warriors. Other than the Spurs though not many teams in the 3-5 seed stand to gain from this KD loss. Maybe the Rockets grab the 2 seed but the Warriors are dropping no lower than the third seed in the west. The KD loss helps the bubble teams in the west the most though. The Trail Blazers mostly with the playoff win ceiling lowered if the Blazers can catch the Nuggets they have that 8 seed all patched up.
In the end though this injury doesn’t affect the playoff race much at all the teams in seeds one through seven are pretty much locked in. Really it’s all about seeding now trying to grab home court advantage in the first round. The KD injury will really more affect the playoffs than the regular season. If Durant isn’t ready to go for the playoffs the whole landscape changes. In terms of the playoff race though it’s pretty much over. Really it never even started.
