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Curry (Right Patellar Bone Bruise) Out For Friday's Game, But Not Expected To Miss Significant Time

MINNEAPOLIS -- Trail Blazers guard Seth Curry slammed his fist on the scorers table as he checked out of Wednesday night’s loss to the Lakers at Staples Center with a right knee injury, giving one the impression that the guard, who missed all of last season due to injury, might have suffered something rather serious. Luckily for Curry and the Trail Blazers, that doesn’t seem to be the case. While an MRI showed that Curry had suffered a right patellar bone bruise, the 6-2 guard in his fourth season out of Duke said after practice in Minneapolis on Thursday that the injury isn’t serious and shouldn’t keep him sidelined for long. “Some good relief, I wasn’t too worried about it,” said Curry of the results of the MRI. “They said it’s a little bruise and I’ll be evaluated pretty much every day trying to see when I can get back.”Curry will sit out Friday night’s game at the Target Center versus the Timberwolves, but his hope is that he can get back on the court before the team returns from a six-game road trip that start in Los Angeles. “My goal is to get back on this trip, as soon as possible,” said Curry. “I was just running down the court, I turned, either my foot or my hip got caught or something… knee cap kind of shifted the wrong way and banged itself. It was a weird thing, like a little clip or something. I didn’t bang knees.”Curry is averaging 4.8 points on 37 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from three, 1.4 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 17.1 minutes per game this season as a part of Portland’s better-than-expected bench unit. Curry missed the entirety of the 2017-18 season with a hip injury before signing with Portland as a free agent during the 2018 offseason. “I’m playing alright, feel like I’ve been playing well on the defensive end for the most part,” said Curry. “Just trying to find my spots, find shots for myself. The second unit has been playing well as a team, that’s great. As the season goes along I feel like I’ll get my legs back and get my full rhythm back, turn back into that scorer that I’m used to.”Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts declined to say exactly how he would go filling Curry’s minutes while he’s sidelined, though it seems likely that some combination of extending the minutes of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum and playing Wade Baldwin IV is the most likely approach. Curry joins Maurice Harkless, who will miss his 10th consecutive game due to a left knee injury, on the inactive list for Friday’s game. With Curry and Harkless in street clothes, rookies Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr. will both suit up in the same game for the first time this season.