Warriors wise to rest Stephen Curry in Game 2 against sputtering Rockets

Enter the Warzone, brushbacks in literary form.

▪ Doesn’t matter if Stephen Curry swore on a stack of Under Armour shoe boxes that his ankle is 100 percent, Warriors coach Steve Kerr was right to rest his superstar.

The Warriors in a seven-game series don’t need Curry to beat the Rockets, who most nights do a fine job of beating themselves.

▪ The NBA playoffs go on so long, Curry could snap one of his ankles and still return for the Finals.

▪ Draymond Green got lots of positive pub for inviting three teens from inner city Oakland to a recent Warriors game.

Well, here’s some for Kaiser Permanente, the Fresno Police Activities League and Lt. Mark Salazar for taking four Fresno youths to Saturday’s Game 1 against Houston.

▪ Derek Carr says 7-9 “isn’t going to cut it” for the Raiders next season.

Expectations slice like a Ginsu.

▪ Colin Kaepernick doesn’t want to be with the 49ers but won’t take a massive pay cut just to be traded. The 49ers, despite public comments, don’t want Kaepernick.

Sounds like a marriage made in purgatory.

▪ Remember when the 49ers were the up-and-coming team and the Raiders were the picture of dysfunction?

That was so five years ago.

▪ The Fresno State athlete with the best chance to be drafted by the NFL is probably Marvelle Harris.

Had Harris not switched to basketball …

▪ Still blown away by Mike Watney’s selflessness and perspective (see Sunday column), volunteering to donate one of his kidneys to friend and fellow local golf pillar Jon DeChambeau.

Watney retired as Fresno State golf coach three years ago but still looks the part. At our meeting last week he wore a red and white striped polo with a Bulldogs logo on it, navy blue shorts and a straw hat with a Bulldogs logo.

“I have so many golf shirts, it’s just easy to grab one of them,” he said.

▪ Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau cashed a $259,600 paycheck in his first event as a PGA Tour pro, enough to charter a private plane for the flight home.

The former Clovis East High star also does a mean Carl Spackler impression, except his is no Cinderella story.

▪ One week after being introduced as the new UNLV men’s basketball coach, Chris Beard bolted for Texas Tech.

Behavior like that is deemed acceptable in coaching circles, but any player who signs a letter-of-intent is stuck.

Remember, though, it’s all about the kids.

▪ Our favorite Fresno State men’s tennis player is Mantas Bugailiskis, just as Gudrun Bjorgvinsdottir happens to be our favorite women’s golfer.

You can probably tell why.

▪ Every year the Fresno Grizzlies have some guy who hits .420 in April seemingly out of nowhere.

This year’s version: Danny Worth. Who comes from Santa Clarita.

▪ Hearing the old Luftenburgs building beyond the left-field wall at Chukchansi Park will soon be repainted to express a more baseball theme.

Hey, it’s a start.

▪ A decade ago or so, when baseball players were popping steroids like chewable vitamins, those Luftenburgs letters would get broken by home runs fairly often.

Today? Not so much.

▪ Pablo Sandoval needs a complete diagnosis on his swollen left shoulder. Which is odd, because usually the swelling is limited to his abdominal region.

▪ For no particular reason: Purvis Short

▪ Red Sox pitcher Steven Wright plunked Toronto’s Chris Colabello in the head and apologized by sending him a bottle of booze.

That’s one way to help your earned-rum average.

▪ Bryce Harper hit a 428-foot home run over the weekend that landed in the bullpen bathroom.

We’ve heard of taking someone to the cleaners before, but never to the john.

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 8:21 PM with the headline "Warriors wise to rest Stephen Curry in Game 2 against sputtering Rockets."