Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said Stephen Curry is in need of rest. Curry committed seven turnovers and missed 10 of 14 3-point attempts on Monday night against the Denver Nuggets.
Curry finished with 20 points and 7 assists but he was not at his best against the Nuggets. The Warriors suffered a 105-114 loss despite the Nuggets playing without the services of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Christian Braun.
Curry was in fact listed as questionable because of a right lower back strain before the game.
“He’s tired,” Kerr said after Curry logged 35 minutes against Denver. “Steph’s been carrying us for a month. He’s been amazing. He’s tired, so we got to get him some rest. Just you can see it. He doesn’t have his energy right now.”
Curry said his back troubled him before the match against the Sacramento Kings when he completed 4000 three-pointers.
Curry was averaging 26.6 points and 6.6 assists in 33.5 minutes in March before the match against the Nuggets.
“I feel fine,” Curry said when asked about being tired. “Obviously I didn’t play great at all, so everybody including Coach is going to try to figure out why. Mostly the turnovers, dumb plays all night, but I had a really good run. You expect to have a level of consistency and whatnot, so when it doesn’t happen it becomes a question.
“I feel like [it is] more so my back I was dealing with the last couple of days, see how that responds tomorrow, but otherwise feel pretty solid.”
Jimmy Butler feels the other players need to support Curry in a better way.
“It’s OK to be tired, and that’s on myself and on us as a unit to pick up the slack for him,” said Butler, who had 23 points, 8 rebound and 6 assists. “Everybody wants to think that he is superhuman. He is not. He is our leader, and we must protect him at all times.”
“He’s exhausted right now,” Kerr said. “So we’ve got to absolutely consider giving him a night and getting him rejuvenated for the sake of him and the remainder of our games. But we’ll see. I think he’s been tired the last few games, and so we’ve got to find a way to get him his juice back.”
The Warriors will take on the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.
