There wasn’t much to celebrate for the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 99-88 Game 1 loss to the Golden State Warriors, but the bigger news was superstar Steph Curry leaving in the second quarter with a hamstring injury and subsequently being ruled out of the game.
An MRI on Wednesday revealed a Grade 1 left hamstring strain that is expected keep Curry out at least one week. With games every other day and Game 5 a week away next Wednesday, it seems likely Game 6 would be the soonest Curry could possibly return.
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The Warriors entered the series against the Timberwolves as underdogs for the first time in over a decade, and their odds shortened from +150 to +135 at BetMGM after their Game 1 win, while Minnesota went from -180 to -160. However, after the report of Curry’s diagnosis, the Warriors went from +135 to +165 and the Wolves shot out to -200 — bigger favorites than they had been before Game 1.
Golden State is a much different team without Curry, and it’s a tall task to win three more games in the series. Minnesota likely won’t start as slowly or shoot as poorly as it did in Game 1, when it scored 31 first-half points and finished the contest shooting 17.2% from 3-point range on 29 attempts.
Golden State is a 10.5-point underdog in Game 2 on Thursday.
