MRI on Stephen Curry's ankle clean, reportedly not expected to miss extended time

This is about as good of news as the Warriors could have hoped.

An MRI of Stephen Curry's right ankle came back clean, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. While he could miss a game — or a few games — recovering from this, he is not expected to miss extended time. That is a huge relief to a Warriors team in the midst of a playoff chase.

Curry rolled his ankle inside the final four minutes of the Warriors' loss to the Bulls Thursday night, immediately limping back to the locker room not to return.

However long Curry is out, expect Chris Paul to step into the starting lineup.

Curry is playing at an All-NBA level this season, averaging 26.9 points per game, shooting 40.7% from 3, and dishing out 4.9 assists a game. As it has long been, Curry's gravity makes the Warriors' movement offense flow, without him they will struggle to score most nights.

The Warriors can't afford to be without Curry for long as they jockey for play-in positioning. Golden State is tied for the 9/10 seeds in the West with the Lakers, 1.5 games back of the No. 8 seed Mavericks. Teams in the 9/10 slots face each other and then need to win another game (over the loser of the 7/8 matchup) to make the playoffs. Golden State wants to climb into the top eight (they are three games back of the Suns for the No. 6 seed and avoiding the play-in altogether).