By Jenny Dial Creech / Houston Chronicle
STEPHEN Curry hit a three-pointer, caught a basketball, hit another three-pointer, caught another ball, hit another three-pointer.
This went on for several minutes after the Warriors finished practicing at the Toyota Center on Saturday afternoon.
Curry was going through his routine, readying himself for Game Four at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. The reigning Most Valuable Player (MVP) is expected to play after missing Games Two and Three with a sprained ankle.
Curry went through three-on-three on Friday at practice, then went full-court five-on-five on Saturday to prepare for Sunday’s game.
“I feel good,” he said. “It was a good practice and I was able to do everything. I like where I’m at right now.”
The Warriors lead the series 2-1 headed into Sunday’s game. Curry wanted to play in Game Three, but team doctors and his coaches weren’t willing to take the risk. After a couple days of practice and conditioning, though, they feel confident that Curry is ready.
Barring any setbacks before the afternoon start, Curry will rejoin his teammates.
“He has no pain and was able to go through everything yesterday and today, so I expect him to be out there,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said.
Kerr may adjust Curry’s minutes based on his conditioning.
“We may have to alter the substitutions and get him out earlier depending on his wind,” Kerr said.
Curry has tried to stay as active as possible while injured and said he hopes he won’t struggle too much to return to game speed.
“I have done a few things the last few days to stay in decent shape,” he said. “Obviously you can’t simulate a playoff intensity, but I think all the work I’ve done over the course of the season will hopefully keep me as close to what I was a week ago as possible, and then hopefully I will be able to find my second wind pretty quick tomorrow. I don’t foresee my conditioning being an issue going forward.”
Curry said he was able to pick up a few things about his team and the Rockets while he was forced to watch rather than play in the last two games.
“It’s about how we play and how they responded,” he said. “If we take care of the basketball and make the simple play, we usually find open shots and have a good rhythm to what we are doing. In Game Three, I was watching in the back and we had a lot of turnovers, a lot of jumbled possessions that fueled their offense, especially in this building. You can’t give them life. You let the crowd in the game and they did a great job obviously of doing that.”
In Game One Curry scored 24 points after only playing 20 minutes. In two other games against the Rockets this season, he scored 35 points and 25 points. His teammates say his impact on the game is crucial in the playoffs.
“This is a must-win game,” guard Klay Thompson said. “We don’t want to come back to Houston. It definitely helps to have the MVP back.”