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Could Stephen Curry's shoulder injury push the defending champion Golden State Warriors into the play-in tournament for the second time in three years?
Although ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Curry is expected to miss "a few weeks" rather than months after suffering the injury (diagnosed as a subluxation) in the second half of Wednesday's lopsided loss in Indiana, the Warriors no longer have the margin for error they had last season, when they had the league's best record at 24-5 at the same point -- 10 more wins than this year.
The most troubling part of Golden State's below -.500 start is that Curry has been almost entirely healthy during it. He's missed just three games thus far -- all losses. The Warriors were 8-10 without Curry last season, and won 70% of games (45-19) with him in the lineup.
Given Golden State is currently in play-in territory, 10th in the West entering Thursday's action, even a wobble over the next three weeks could make it difficult for the Warriors to make up ground in a conference where nine teams are currently .500 or better. So how big an impact might Curry's absence have?
Warriors need more from Poole
Despite Golden State's middling performance, Curry has been playing at an MVP level this season. Missing multiple weeks will affect his candidacy for the moment, though it might not necessarily end it if other top contenders also miss time.
With Curry on the court, the Warriors have been a top-tier team, outscoring opponents by 7.0 points per 100 possessions according to NBA Advanced Stats. That's not quite as good as last season, when Golden State had a plus-10.7 net rating with Curry, but the real decline has occurred with him on the bench.
Last season, with Jordan Poole stepping forward as a playmaker, the Warriors were nearly even when they played without Curry (minus-1.4 net rating). So far in 2022-23, with Poole slumping from 3-point range, they've been blitzed by 11.1 points per 100 possessions with Curry on the bench.
Recently, Golden State has somewhat remedied its second-unit woes by pairing Poole with Draymond Green. Lineups including both players but not Curry have a strong plus-6.6 net rating, according to Cleaning the Glass data, as compared to a ghastly minus -11.4 when Poole plays with neither Curry nor Green.
With Poole likely to continue starting in Curry's absence -- he's been in that role the last six games, five of them with Curry, due to other Warriors being out of the lineup -- he'll inevitably share the court with Green and Golden State's other productive starters.
The big challenge for coach Steve Kerr over the next few weeks will be managing Poole's rest. The Warriors have played just 74 minutes all season with neither Curry nor Poole on the court, per analysis of lineup data from NBA Advanced Stats. Ty Jerome, who's on a two-way contract, has played the point for the bulk of those minutes.
We could see Golden State's perimeter rotation get particularly thin on back-to-backs because Klay Thompson has yet to play in both ends of them since coming back from ACL and Achilles injuries last season. Without Thompson, the Warriors will need to get rotation-caliber play from second-year guard Moses Moody, who's been in and out of the lineup.
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
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