The Golden State Warriors are gearing up for their first-round playoff matchup with the San Antonio Spurs without the services of superstar Stephen Cury.

After returning from an ankle injury a few weeks ago, the point guard suffered an MCL sprain in the same game and head coach Steve Kerr confirmed that he would miss the entirety of the first round.

Curry, however, was more positive and refused to rule himself out, stating that he was hoping to prove his coach wrong.

But it appears that the two-time MVP won't be able to do that and according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, he's now realistically targeting a return in the second-round if the Warriors get that far.

The 30-year-old was always due to be re-evaluated in three weeks and that will take place today but he's conceded that he won't be able to play any part in the opening round series with the Spurs.

That doesn't come as a huge surprise as Kerr's recent update on Curry was that he wasn't "anywhere close to playing".

“He’s not practicing yet or anything. I think three weeks (from his injury) is Saturday. I think that’s when we said the doctors would reevaluate him. He isn’t anywhere close to playing, I can say that,” he said in an interview with KNBR.

Curry provided an update of his own last weekend and stated that he hasn't had any setbacks in his rehab and that his recovery is going according to plan.

“I haven’t had any setbacks,” Curry said, per NBA.com. “So that’s the positive, every day has been something good, advancing the rehab process. I’m looking forward to making more progress as we get towards the playoffs.”

With San Antonio missing Kawhi Leonard, the Warriors are the overwhelming favourites to advance as they still possess three All-Stars in Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

They may have ended the regular season with three losses in their final four games but it would be a huge mistake to doubt the reigning champions.

In the eyes of Kerr, they can still beat anybody in the league without Curry and he expects to see a more focused approach from his team ahead of game one on Saturday.

"I think part of the problem the last month is we've been locked into the two seed," Kerr said Friday during an appearance on ESPN's The Jump.

"Obviously, we've had a lot of injuries, but the games have not been meaningful, and our play and our focus reflected that. The games are about to get extremely meaningful, as we know.

"I know our guys. I know how competitive they are. I know how talented they are. So I expect things to turn around pretty quickly for us in the first round."

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