The Golden State Warriors will play without Stephen Curry for at least three more games in their series against Minnesota. This is because a test showed a small injury to his left leg muscle.

The Warriors team announced that Curry would not play for at least a week because of the injury he got on Tuesday night. He had to leave the first game early in the second quarter, but his team still won 99-88. Before he left, he scored 13 points in 13 minutes, helping Golden State get a good lead and win on the Timberwolves' home court.

"Every year, the playoffs are about changing and reacting to different things, like the game plan, injuries, or the players on the team," said coach Steve Kerr. "We have been in this situation before, and we believe we can handle it again."

Game 2 will be in Minneapolis on Thursday. Then, the series moves to San Francisco for Game 3 on Saturday and Game 4 on Monday. Curry might return earliest for Game 5 on May 14. After that game, there are three days off before Game 6 on May 18.

Curry has never had a serious hamstring injury before. This makes it unclear how long he will be away and if the Warriors can manage without the best 3-point shooter in NBA history until he comes back near the end of the series. But, they probably shouldn't rely on that.

Kerr stated, "We believe our defense is the strongest in the league, and this has been shown over the past few months."

However, this Golden State team is not as strong as before, when Curry and Draymond Green were younger and players like Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala were very important to their wins. In 2018, they also had Kevin Durant.

The Warriors were feeling good about how everyone helped out in Game 1, especially Jimmy Butler, Buddy Hield, and Green. Coach Kerr used 12 different players in that game.

Without Curry, Butler will handle the ball most of the time, like he did recently. This player, who has been an All-Star six times and joined the team from Miami three months ago, helped the Warriors play better on offense and defense. In the first game, he scored 20 points, got 11 rebounds, and made eight assists. He scored 20 or more points in four of the five games he played against Houston in the first round.

"Everyone is ready to play. Everyone in the game wants to do well," said Timberwolves guard Mike Conley. "So you need to be even more focused on the game, who you are playing against, and what they usually do. They are not only looking for Curry. Of course, Buddy and Jimmy will be more active, but they have players who can score, and they might try to do it together as a team."