Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors saw their 2020-21 NBA season come to an end on Friday night as they lost 112-117 in overtime to the Memphis Grizzlies in the play-in tournament.
MVP candidate Curry did all he could to lead his team to the playoffs and put on yet another masterclass with 39 points, but the Grizzlies turned out to be the better team on the night.
The NBA fraternity was in awe of the two-time league MVP and the way he carried this young Warriors team throughout the campaign in the absence of his backcourt partner Klay Thompson.
Stephen Curry's tailbone injury was a hairline fracture, claims teammate Kent Bazemore
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Kent Bazemore revealed after the game that Stephen Curry was playing with a hairline fracture in his tailbone all this while. Curry suffered the injury way back on March 17th in a regular-season matchup against the Houston Rockets. It was reported as a "tailbone contusion" at the time.
Here's what Kent Bazemore said:
"Man, that dude is unbelievable... regardless of how he's feeling he'll never let you know."
Despite that, Stephen Curry had a phenomenal run of form after incurring that injury. Since making his return to the court after the said injury, Curry averaged a whopping 36.9 points per game until the end of the regular season. He made 6.5 threes on average and was shooting at 49.1% from the field.
Curry broke multiple records during that stretch. He crossed the legendary Wilt Chamberlain as the Golden State Warriors' all-time leading scorer and also scored the most three-pointers during a three-game span (29) in that period. He claimed the scoring title for the 2020-21 season as well.
Speaking about Curry's tailbone injury and how he played through it, Bazemore also revealed the way he protected his tailbone from getting injured. He said that Curry had been using a "butt pad" to make sure he didn't aggravate the injury during games.
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