Golden State Warriors All-Star guard Stephen Curry had an MRI exam that came back clean on his ailing right knee, but he has not returned to practice because of persistent pain and swelling, ESPN reported on Thursday afternoon.

Curry, who turns 38 on March 14, already was ruled out of the Warriors’ home game on Thursday night because of patellofemoral pain syndrome, also known as “runner’s knee.”

He has not played since leaving a Jan. 30 home game against Detroit, missing five contests leading into the All-Star break. He initially felt pain during a Jan. 24 individual workout and kept playing before being sidelined.

Golden State coach Steve Kerr had hoped to have Curry back by Thursday, but Curry told the training staff on Wednesday night that the knee had been flaring up after individual workouts and wasn’t ready for a live scrimmage, ESPN reported.

“Just wasn’t where he needed to be,” Kerr said on Wednesday. “It’s unfortunate.”

A two-time NBA MVP, Curry had to sit out his 12th All-Star Game last weekend. He has missed 16 games to date, but is averaging 27.2 points per game, the fifth-highest per game total of his 17-year career.

“It’s a matter of learning as I go what works rehab-wise,” Curry told ESPN on Feb. 5. “Because it’s still painful. You have to try to get rid of all the inflammation and pain. It’s something we still have to monitor and injury-manage, but it’s something where, if I come back too early, it could flare up.”

–Field Level Media

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin has more records to break, more wins to celebrate and surely more medals to drape around her neck.

But the most successful Alpine skier in World Cup history, and one of the greatest of all time, struggled on Thursday to see far beyond the Milan Cortina Olympics when asked about her sporting future.

“I don’t know if I have an answer for that,” the American told Reuters.

“I’m so in it right now. There’s actually so much left of this season. It’s a big goal for me to be competing for this overall title. And there’s potentially four to six races left in the season for me.

“There’s so many things to look forward to.

“I feel that there’s some kind of transition in my career coming closer, but I don’t know what that looks like and I don’t know how to say it.”

MOST GOLDS BY A U.S. ALPINE SKIER

The 30-year-old now has the most Olympic gold medals ever won by a U.S. skier, along with a record 108 World Cup wins.

Wednesday’s slalom title was her third Olympic gold since the first in 2014 and she now has a total of four Olympic medals.

At world championships, Shiffrin has 15 medals, eight of them gold.

The American, who is engaged to Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, is also heading for her sixth overall World Cup crystal globe, having already secured the smaller slalom one for a record ninth time.

“Every day I go out for training and I love it,” she said. “I love skiing and I love training and I love practicing.

“So I don’t know how it looks for the next four years. Four years feels like a really long time, but also it goes by so fast. So I could tell you something now and then we’d be four years from now, like, ‘Oh. Oopsie.'”

Shiffrin spoke emotionally on Wednesday about the struggle of competing without the presence of her father, who died in 2020, the silent connection she felt after crossing the finish line and a new reality.

“I have wanted to and I have really been angry and resentful of people who talk about feeling their loved one with them after passing,” she said on Thursday.

“And I’ve wanted to talk to my dad so many times and I’ve tried talking to him and he doesn’t respond. And that makes me mad.

“In this race, maybe it was the first time where I thought that I can just talk to him and he doesn’t have to respond. And maybe that was a key thing to accept — the reality that I can win a medal and he’s not here to see it.”

–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media

The Milwaukee Bucks are attempting to limit the noise surrounding the health and cloudy future of their superstar by taking care of matters on the court.

Playing without two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks will bid for their sixth win in seven games on Friday when they return from the All-Star break to face the host New Orleans Pelicans.

Sidelined since Jan. 23, Antetokounmpo was expected to miss four-to-six weeks with a strained right calf. It will be exactly four weeks on Friday.

“I’m healthy today, I just got to check the boxes,” Antetokounmpo said on NBA Today earlier in the week. “I gotta play 1-on-1, 3-on-3, 5-on-5. The moment I do that, that can be the next game.”

The Bucks lost their first three games without Antetokounmpo before picking up mostly positive results over their last six games, including a 141-137 overtime decision versus New Orleans on Feb. 4 in Milwaukee

Ryan Rollins erupted for 27 points and AJ Green had 20 in that game to help the Bucks overcome a sizzling display by the Pelicans’ Trey Murphy III, who highlighted his career-high 44-point performance with a franchise-best 12 3-pointers.

Milwaukee spread the wealth in its last game before the break, with seven players scoring in double digits in a 110-93 victory over the host Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 12.

Ousmane Dieng recorded his first career double-double after collecting a season-high 19 points and 11 rebounds against his former team in the Thunder. Green had 17 points and Bobby Portis added 15 to go along with 12 boards for the Bucks.

“We’re playing for Milwaukee,” Portis told Sirius XM NBA Radio. “I’m playing for Milwaukee. I take pride in being a Buck. I love the city of Milwaukee. They call me the mayor of Milwaukee.”

The Pelicans rebounded from their overtime loss to the Bucks by winning two of their final three games before the All-Star break.

Murphy scored 19 points in New Orleans’ 123-111 home loss to the Miami Heat on Feb. 11 before exiting the contest with soreness in his right shoulder. Murphy, who averages a team-best 22.1 points and 1.5 steals per game, is expected to return to the court for Friday’s game.

Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen have fared well during their rookie seasons, with the former averaging 13.2 points while the latter is contributing 12.2 points to go along with team-best averages in rebounds (7.2) and assists (4.1).

Queen, however, got the last laugh in the NBA Rising Stars competition as he helped Team Vince defeat Fears’ Team Melo in the title game.

Both players are ready to take the experience of playing in that spotlight into the second half of the Pelicans’ season.

“We’re gonna come back a lot more confident,” Fears said on the Pelicans podcast. “We’re gonna be around (our teammates). We’re just gonna continue to keep working and it’s going to open our eyes for sure.”

Said Queen: “I’m excited to come back. We’ve got three home games. Win those three and get back on the right track.”

–Field Level Media