Dub Nation’s worst fears have manifested. On a night the Golden State Warriors host the Detroit Pistons on a great run, Stephen Curry had to exit in the second half. After his exit, the Dubs have been down 109-117 in the fourth quarter. But they won’t be getting their best closer back.

The Warriors officially ruled out Curry for the rest of the game after he left late in the third quarter. He has aggravated his knee. It’s the same knee that gave him trouble in Minnesota.

He had tallied 23 points on a 7-of-16 shooting in the 25 minutes he played with 1 rebound, 2 assists, and 1 block. He apparently aggravated his knee in a layup during the last play. Pat Spencer subbed him for the rest of the game and helped the Dubs cut the deficit to 124-129 in the final minutes.

It’s a small comfort that Curry didn’t limp with his wrapped knee. He gingerly walked himself to the locker room without any assistance. His face did show some pain though. We’d still have to wait for the team to respond on the severity of it.

The Dubs naturally don’t want to lose Stephen Curry at this critical juncture. The Warriors are rapidly losing star power since Jimmy Butler’s season-ending ACL tear, followed by Jonathan Kuminga’s injury. Curry has been having knee issues since last week and the team is trying to manage his injury without sidelining him for an extended period.

It ultimately was not meant to be. While Curry was still in the locker room, the Warriors lost 124-131 to the Pistons, showing just how cautious the team has to be about his injury going further.

Stephen Curry’s knee injury is a persistent concern for the Warriors

When the Warriors’ January 24 game against the Timberwolves was postponed by a day, Stephen Curry had gotten a workout in with some teammates. He was listed as questionable when the game resumed on Sunday.

Yet he played a complete 28 minutes, had 26 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals while moving up to the top 20 all-time scorers list. Yet it wasn’t hard to miss that he had been limping the entire game and played through visible pain when another player stepped on his toe.

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He later confirmed that his knee flared up the previous day. “I’ve had stuff going on with quads and whatnot, but it was something that I hadn’t felt before. So, I definitely took advantage of the day off to get right, but hopefully that continues.”

It however was not an ideal situation for back-to-back games. While the Warriors served a blowout 85-111 loss to the Wolves on Sunday, the Wolves turned the tables with a 108-83 win. Curry had to sit out this game which made the difference.

He returned the next game against the Utah Jazz to lead the Dubs to a 124-140 win. It’s more than obvious he’s essential to the Warriors’ offense during this crucial stretch of the season.

Throughout 38 games this season, he has put up MVP calibre numbers averaging 27.3 points, 3.6 assists and 4.9 rebounds while shooting at 46.8% from the field and 39.0% from 3-point range. But the Warriors have to make some trade deadline decisions to reduce his load and avoid further injury.