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?