Stephen Curry: Kobe Bryant gave me advice on playing with hurt finger

LOS ANGELES -- Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry said he consulted with former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant this week on how to deal with a painful, injured ring finger on his shooting hand.

Curry missed a game this week because of the injury but was able to play 39 minutes with a wrap and pad on his finger in the Warriors' 127-123 overtime win over the Lakers on Wednesday night at Staples Center.

Curry said he reached out to Bryant because he knew the former Lakers star had dealt with a similar injury during his career. According to Curry, Bryant told him it was possible to play with the injury if it's wrapped and padded, but that it was one of the more painful injuries he'd experienced in his career, and that it did not heal quickly.

Bryant repeatedly chose to play with the injury, thereby declining surgery on his finger. Curry did not say whether his finger injury was severe enough to consider surgery but stressed that he intended to continue playing through it. The challenge going forward will be pain management and adjusting to playing with tape and padding on his shooting hand, Curry said.

"It hurts," Curry said. "But guys have played through worse than this. Obviously with your shooting hand, it's one of those things you got to get adjusted to. I'm not used to playing with tape, a brace, wrist wrap, all that stuff. But I'll get better with it."

Curry finished with 28 points on 9-for-20 shooting. But he struggled mightily early in the game, airballing three times and missing eight of his first 12 shots. He finally settled in during the overtime period, when he hit all three of his shots and scored 13 of the Warriors' 18 points.