Golden State Warriors PG Stephen Curry has been ruled out for Tuesday night’s game vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves due to knee soreness. The Warriors are riding a three-game losing streak, their most recent loss by these same Timberwolves on the second night of a back-to-back on Sunday. Curry wasn’t able to will the Dubs to a win in a 116-110 loss, dropping 38 points. We’re going to go over the fantasy basketball and betting impact of Curry being ruled out.
Update — Charania is now reporting that Curry is dealing with a knee sprain and he’s going to undergo further evaluation to determine the extent of the injury. Curry isn’t expected to miss much time, however.
Stephen Curry injury
Fantasy basketball impact
With Curry out, we could see some vintage Klay Thompson on Tuesday’s slate. Thompson will be a popular tournament play on DraftKings at $6,500. His overall numbers are down this season, averaging just over 16.1 points per game. But it’s really because of lack of shot attempts. Thompson is shooting what would be a career-low 34.7% from 3-point range, which isn’t encouraging. Still, he should get a nice boost in shot attempts.
We should also see PG Chris Paul enter the starting lineup in place of Curry. CP3 is $6,100 on DK and isn’t really too appealing an option given his assist totals could drop with no one to fill it up like Curry. Andrew Wiggins ($5,000) feels like the best option but could be chalky at that price. Minnesota also enters on a six-game winning streak. So it could be a night to fade the Dubs in DFS.
Betting impact
This line has shifted dramatically with this Curry news. The Warriors were slight favorites at -2 on the spread and now the T-Wolves are -2.5 on DraftKings Sportsbook. This is the first time all season the Warriors will be without Curry. Golden State is still at home and would drop to 6-6 on the season with another loss. The line seems to be bouncing between 2.5 and 2.0 on DKSB. The lean has to be with a hot Minnesota team that just beat Golden State by six points with Curry healthy.
The lean should on Minnesota but you could also look at some first half lines or player props for depth guys on Golden State. Even the first quarter spread of T-Wolves -0.5 feels like a decent line if Minnesota comes out hot and the Dubs struggle without Curry initially. Wiggins and Thompson point props aren’t bad to look at also.