Steve Kerr says the Warriors won't put winning ahead of a player's career and that Golden State will wait until Steph Curry is healthy before putting him back in the lineup. (1:05)

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Shortly before tipoff on Monday, Stephen Curry was hidden from view, tucked into a training room at the back of Golden State’s locker room.

Often, that training room door is open, emitting a stream of jocular banter among the players out to the main locker room area. This time, the door was closed, contributing to an atmosphere of solemn silence. The main area was replete with reporters anxiously awaiting word of Curry’s status. Somehow, the bigger the crowd grew, the quieter it got. Game 2 against the Rockets was in moments, but the playoff game was an afterthought.

The door briefly opened. Curry was asking an attendant for his phone, which was stored across the room and on the other side of the crowd. The door opened again, this time to welcome Warriors owner Joe Lacob and Warriors general manager Bob Myers, indicating a certain gravity to the situation. They were here to consult with the MVP and team doctors about how to proceed.

Lacob had drawn fire in certain talk radio quadrants for adding, "It's not just Steph Curry” to a recent explanation of his team’s success. While the quote is impolitic, it’s not false. The Warriors are more than their superstar. They’ve indeed optimized his situation, flanking him with long, intelligent defenders who either shoot or move the ball on offense.

At the same time, while it’s not “just” Steph Curry, it’s also nothing without Steph Curry. There are good players on this team who wear numbers other than 30. They just aren’t combining to win a championship. More than any other singular factor, Curry’s genius animates this roster into a historically dominant force. It’s not just Steph, but without him, the Warriors are just another team -- average, good, or otherwise.

Before the locker room summit, negative Curry news had cast a sudden pall over the pregame festivities. While Curry was listed as “questionable,” going in, he’d given positive indications after the game he suffered a “right ankle tweak.” On Monday, the ominous rumblings began with coach Steve Kerr’s news conference, sometime after 8:45 p.m. ET. While giving the Curry prognosis, Kerr also offered the sensible message of prioritizing his superstar’s health above all. He just happened to raise the terrifying specter of Grant Hill while saying that:

“We know that he had surgery on that ankle four years ago. He’s got a lot of basketball ahead of him. There are plenty of cases in the past where people played through stuff, and it didn’t turn out so well. Grant Hill being the one that always jumps out at me. Whether that is the same type of thing as this, I don’t really know. I do know is that we have to look after his health because the competitor that he is, he’s going to want to play.”

Grant Hill? At least Kerr indicated Curry would do his usual warm-up at roughly 9 p.m. ET, a now-famous routine that positively correlates with his playing. That is, when Curry finishes his routine. With fans intently recording his every move on their phones, Curry ended his warm-up abruptly. As he was getting ready to shoot, he suddenly stopped and left the floor while shaking his head. Murmurs of concern warbled through whatever air remained in the building.

Then, the summit with Lacob, Myers and doctors. Then, the obvious official declaration that he was out for Game 2.

The Warriors responded wonderfully, giving credence to Lacob’s “It’s not just Steph,” claim. It’s a claim Lacob never wants tested, but on Monday, the Warriors passed. Klay Thompson was necessarily assertive, driving three more times in the game than he had in any prior game this season. Andre Iguodala hit four straight 3-pointers (buzzer heave excluded). Shaun Livingston briefly, beautifully fulfilled his destiny as starting point guard on a playoff team (7-of-9, 16 points, 6 assists). Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut were stifling on defense, eventually eroding a Houston attack that had initially shelled Golden State from outside.

Now, the Warriors lead by two games, a lead that might inform how they proceed with the Curry situation overshadowing this series. “I’d like to think that if it were 1-1, and he was still not able to play, then we wouldn’t play him,” Kerr said after the game.

There’s currently an opacity to what’s going on with Curry. Truths are still tucked away, hidden behind that training room door. In postgame, Kerr mentioned Curry’s “foot,” even though the official word was “tweaked ankle.” When asked specifically if it’s a foot or an ankle, Kerr said, “I don’t know. Honestly. It’s both. I mean, I’m not sure I know the difference. It’s the back of his foot, it’s the ankle, it’s something down there.”

The reigning assumption was that Curry had suffered one of his typical ankle sprains, but the optics don’t exactly jibe. The camera angle of the injury was less than ideal, but it was hard to discern an inversion of the foot. After Saturday’s game, multiple observers noted that Curry’s ankle did not appear swollen, as what normally happens after a sprain in that area. After the injury, Curry was walking without a limp, which seemed like a positive indicator -- but one that doesn’t exactly fit the picture of a standard ankle sprain.

The matter of Curry’s injury dwarfs this current playoff series in terms of importance. Of course, the moment of immense concern will be instantly forgotten if Curry quickly returns in fine form. The Warriors need the latter to happen. They can win a Steph-less series against Houston, but this is not a sustainable model. It’s not just Steph, but it needs to include Steph.