Stephen Curry returns after injury

After missing the past 11 games for the Golden State Warriors with a right ankle sprain, Stephen Curry returned in emphatic fashion Saturday night. The two-time NBA MVP exploded for 38 points, shot 13-for-17 from the floor and nailed a season-high 10 of 13 3-pointers in 26 minutes to guide the Warriors to a 141- 128 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. “I just wanted that feeling again,” Curry said.
“It was pretty special. It felt like it was the first day of school again.” It was Curry’s ninth 30- point game of the season, and his 10 treys were the highest total for any NBA player this season. Although it was nearly a month since he last played, Curry appeared not to have missed a beat. “I was just happy to be back out there with my guys,” he said.
“You sit and watch for 11 games, you just wonder what it’s going to be like to get back out there, and I finally got that opportunity. I really didn’t know what to expect. I just wanted to get some good reps, get up and down, see how my wind was and, surprisingly, I think my body felt way better than I expected.” Curry’s return came five days too late for the mega Christmas Day matchup with the rival Cleveland Cavaliers. He said he desperately wanted to give it a go against the Cavs but knew he wasn’t 100 percent.
Still, Curry said it was frustrating experience. “It was weird because [that game] was right in that little in-between zone of assessing my body and knowing I wasn’t going to be 100 percent, but I could be well enough to play and not be in jeopardy of re-injuring myself,” he said. “I had that on my radar from the time I got hurt, because I knew it was eight games from that New Orleans game to the Cleveland game and wanting to play because of how special it is to play on Christmas Day and obviously knowing who we were playing against.
“You can ask [assistant] Coach Q [Bruce Fraser], that was probably my worst pregame workout. I had no inspiration at all. I was out there mad the whole time because I wasn’t suiting up. So, I actually quit, stopped my workout like halfway through … If it wasn’t Christmas Day, it probably wouldn’t have been that hard to sit out because I wasn’t ready.” (www.espn.com)