Seth Curry didn’t play in Tuesday’s game against Houston, but the Nets don’t plan to sideline the sweet shooting guard for the rest of the regular season.
With Curry dealing with a sore left ankle since before he arrived in a trade from the 76ers on Feb. 10, both he and the Nets admit that a couple of days off probably won’t be enough to solve the problem. Brooklyn doesn’t see any point in keeping him until the start of the game, and hopes he can get dressed Wednesday against the Knicks.
“No, I think we have hope that he will play [Wednesday]Steve Nash said. “It’s an extra day off, it’s back-to-back, so if he was going to play one of these games, it probably makes more sense to give him an extra day off to recover and play. [versus the Knicks]. But we’ll see. We’ll see how he responds these days. It is a delicate position, difficult because rest will help. There is no guarantee that rest will be the cure in three, four, five, six, seven or eight days. It could be an off-season type thing.
“So he can be in this state, in this condition, for the rest of the season. So trying to get him to rest is definitely a priority for us, but also knowing that if we give him rest it doesn’t mean he comes back and plays a game and it’s all gone. It could be right where we started. So it’s a bit tricky to keep it going indefinitely to try to believe that it’s going to be healed. That is not what we believe. You know, he’s going to be healed. That is not what we believe. He’s going to be fighting a little bit through this the rest of the way.”
The ankle injury has reduced Curry’s practice time, which in turn has affected his consistency. Still, even when he hasn’t hit 3s, his gravity has been invaluable. His impact on Brooklyn’s offense has been even greater than on Philadelphia’s.
The Nets have seen their effective field goal percentage rise from 53.4 percent without Curry to 56.3 percent with him, their offensive rating from 113.4 to 119.8.
“Yes, I think the time he takes to improve will be on him. I think it’s okay; looks good. We need it. I think as simple as that,” said Andre Drummond, who came with Curry in that same trade from the Sixers. “You take out one of our shooters, one of our veterans who knows the game very well, obviously. Seth has been very good to us, so losing him is definitely a huge success.”
Goran Dragic is still under health and safety protocols, and remains stuck in Atlanta.
Bruce Brown (non-COVID illness) was available Tuesday after being likely. But James Johnson (non-COVID illness) was demoted to out shortly before the start of the game after being questionable.
Nash said Nic Claxton has progressed not only in consistency and conditioning, but also in terms of his hands, catching, finishing and rebounding in traffic.
Wednesday will mark the first time Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have played together as the Nets at the Garden.
Reference-nypost.com