How the Warriors Can Stay Afloat While Steph Curry Is Out

Stephen Curry will miss about a week with a quad contusion, per ESPN's Shams Charania and Anthony Slater.

Charania added that Curry appears to "have avoided any serious issue" and that his return "will depend on how quad responds to treatment."

Curry suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's loss to the Houston Rockets. He played a few minutes with a noticeable limp before leaving the game for good with 35 seconds left.

The Warriors (10-10) have just two games in the next seven days: vs. New Orleans on Saturday and vs. OKC on Tuesday. Perhaps he'll be ready to return for next Thursday's game at Philadelphia.

In the meantime, here is how they can make do without him.

Rely Heavily on Jimmy Butler

Butler is Golden State's most effective driver. That's reflected in the fact that he leads the team in points in the paint per game with 9.1.

But he doesn't always drive to score. He often attacks the middle with the hope that defenders lose sight of who they are guarding, and that can lead to open looks for teammates.

The blueprint for how the Warriors can be successful was shown last year against the Bucks on March 18.

Curry missed that game, and Butler carried the team in his absence. In 37 minutes, Butler had 24 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds and was a game-high-tying plus-14.

The Warriors got four three-pointers each from Brandin Podziemski, Quinten Post and Buddy Hield that game. Butler is capable of getting them good looks, and they'll need to knock them down to make the offense functional.

Play This Sneaky-Good Lineup with Butler on the Bench

Of the Warriors' 10 most used lineups, just one has an above-average offensive rating and doesn't feature Curry or Butler.

That lineup consists of Podziemski, Will Richard, Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Post.

That quintet has a 128.0 offensive rating and a 104.2 defensive rating, per Cleaning the Glass. Those are elite numbers.

Kuminga is the key to this lineup's effectiveness. He told Slater he's targeting a Saturday return from his knee injury. If he's in rhythm, he can be the primary scorer for this lineup.

The Warriors don't have other good options in the non-Butler minutes, so Kerr would be wise to go to this fivesome while Draymond Green and Butler rest.

Win Ugly

Curry is the Warriors' best offensive player by any measure, but he's also a below-average defender by most metrics.

Per Cleaning the Glass, Golden State's defense is 6.5 points per 100 possessions worse with Curry on the floor.

The most used non-Curry lineup this season features Podz, Moody, Butler, Green and Post. That lineup has an elite 100.0 defensive rating, but it has an equally pitiful 98.1 offense rating.

Even though the Pelicans are 3-16, they have more offensive firepower than Golden State with Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III and possibly Jordan Poole if he's cleared to return Saturday.

The Warriors may have to get into a rock fight, but they can win that way. They went 7-5 without Curry last year, and most of those wins were defensive slugfests.