“I didn’t have anything to do with when the announcement would be made,” Kerr said. “All I knew was there was no way he was playing tomorrow. So that was not a surprise to me that we deemed him out. That was kind of a foregone conclusion.”

Really, the Warriors had to remember that next season needs to be maximized, too. They want Curry as healthy as possible going into this offseason, not working through a re-aggravated or torn hamstring. They want him on a full workout schedule; they can anticipate he’ll be even fresher than he was at the start of this season after a summer at the Olympics. And they can believe Curry has at least one more great season in him — added to Jimmy Butler’s first full season with the Warriors.

Most viscerally, they don’t want him to go through anything like Kevin Durant’s anguish and long comeback after tearing his Achilles in the 2019 NBA Finals, his last game as a Warrior. Or what the Celtics and Jayson Tatum are going through now, a day after Tatum tore his Achilles and cried as he was wheeled out of Madison Square Garden. Injuries are impossible to avoid. Competitors want to play no matter what. But reckless decision-making has no place in the playoffs.

“If he’s in a place where he can play, I’m sure he will,” Draymond Green said after Game 4. “Him and Rick and everybody will figure that out. But we don’t need Superman. Gotta play the long game. If he can, we know he will. But there’s no pressure. We’ve got to figure out how to win whether he plays or not.” 

Can the Warriors win Game 5 without Curry? It doesn’t seem likely, but there’s always a chance. They won Game 1 at Target Center with these same players after Curry went down early in the second quarter. And there were some miniature signs on Monday that it’s possible. They held the lead at halftime before the Timberwolves’ third-quarter blitzing. The Warriors have some players who can make shots, they’re just not doing it right now. They have Butler, who has won a lot of playoff games almost by himself, and presumably he won’t be as sick as he was on Monday. They won Game 7 in Houston (albeit with Curry) when they could’ve easily folded.

But the Warriors need Curry to move deep into this postseason. They always need Curry. A healthy Curry, that is.