Kerr says Curry 'exhausted,' could sit vs. Bucks

SAN FRANCISCO -- After watching Stephen Curry commit seven turnovers and miss 10 of 14 3-point attempts Monday night against an undermanned Denver Nuggets team, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr acknowledged he needs to find some rest for his superstar point guard.

Curry finished with 20 points and 7 assists, but the Nuggets were still able to halt Golden State's seven-game win streak with a 114-105 victory despite playing without Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Christian Braun.

Curry was listed as questionable entering the game because of a right lower back strain. Kerr said the Warriors will have to consider "potentially" resting Curry on Tuesday against Milwaukee, the second night of a back-to-back.

"He's tired," Kerr said after Curry logged 35 minutes against Denver. "Steph's been carrying us for a month. He's been amazing. He's tired, so we got to get him some rest. Just you can see it. He doesn't have his energy right now."

Curry said his back first started bothering him in pregame warmups Thursday, before the Warriors played the Sacramento Kings. During that win, Curry became the first player to reach 4,000 career 3-pointers.

Curry was averaging 26.6 points and 6.6 assists in 33.5 minutes in March entering play Monday.

"I feel fine," Curry said when asked about being tired. "Obviously I didn't play great at all, so everybody including Coach is going to try to figure out why. Mostly the turnovers, dumb plays all night, but I had a really good run. You expect to have a level of consistency and whatnot, so when it doesn't happen it becomes a question.

"I feel like [it is] more so my back I was dealing with the last couple of days, see how that responds tomorrow, but otherwise feel pretty solid."

Jimmy Butler, who lost for just the second time in the 16 games he has played in with the Warriors, said he and the team need to do a better job of helping Curry.

"It's OK to be tired, and that's on myself and on us as a unit to pick up the slack for him," said Butler, who had 23 points, 8 rebound and 6 assists. "Everybody wants to think that he is superhuman. He is not. He is our leader, and we must protect him at all times."

Kerr said he will huddle with Rick Celebrini, the Warriors' VP of player health and performance, to determine Curry's status against Milwaukee.

"He's exhausted right now," Kerr said. "So we've got to absolutely consider giving him a night and getting him rejuvenated for the sake of him and the remainder of our games. But we'll see. I think he's been tired the last few games, and so we've got to find a way to get him his juice back."