The tour of South Africa has already been hit by injuries to skipper Ricky Ponting (abdominal muscle strain), all-rounder Andrew Symonds (hip flexor strain) and Stuart Clark (rib bruising).
With Golden State losing Lee to a torn hipflexor and the Nuggets getting top rebounder and energizer Kenneth Faried back from a sprained ankle, this one looked like a mismatch, even Curry acknowledged.
Ashton said the Barkley injury, a strained hipflexor, was just another piece of bad luck for the team, coming after the injury that ruled Dave Strettle out of the tournament altogether, and Wilkinson out of the first two games - all three of them non-contact training incidents.