The wait for Steph Curry’s return from right patellofemoral pain syndrome continues.
Curry during the Warriors’ blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night told ESPN’s Malika Andrews “it’s going to be a little longer.” The Warriors on Sunday provided the latest update on Curry, saying he again will be re-evaluated in another 10 days.
Per the Warriors, Curry is “making progress” and will miss at least five more games before the next update.
He missed all of February, a month where the Warriors played 10 games, and last played on Jan. 30 in a loss to the Detroit Pistons. Curry had to leave that game with four minutes left in the third quarter because of his continued issues from what is more commonly known as “runner’s knee.” The Warriors went 4-6 in February and now are 8-13 without Curry during the 2025-26 NBA season.
Predicting when Curry will return is a waste of everybody’s time. After missing five consecutive games leading up to the NBA All-Star break, the hope was Curry would return in the Warriors’ first game back on Feb. 19 against the Boston Celtics. But a setback working out during the break halted him and reset Curry’s clock.
Caution is the only answer for Curry and the Warriors the way the season has gone. Curry has played at an elite level when healthy and was named to his 12th NBA All-Star Game and 11th as a starter. He likely would have made an All-NBA team if he didn’t become ineligible since he won’t reach the 65-game minimum requirements.
The Warriors are 31-29 after their 28-point loss to the Lakers and have been the No. 8 seed for nearly three months now. At this point, the real question is, should the Warriors hold Curry out until their inevitable date with the NBA play-in tournament?
Golden State’s preseason goal of being a top-six seed in the Western Conference is gone. Warriors coach Steve Kerr admitted Saturday night that it’s something he and his team don’t even talk about anymore. There’s no need, and he knows it.
“It’s a lot to make up with 22 games left. … It’s not anything that is worth discussing because we just have to try to go out and win and see what happens,” Kerr said.
Going into Sunday, the Warriors are 4.5 games back of the Lakers for the No. 6 seed. That gap can rise to five games by the end of Sunday night after the Lakers’ game in Los Angeles against the Sacramento Kings. The Warriors are three games behind the No. 7-seed Phoenix Suns, who currently are down Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks. For how difficult leaping into the top six and out of the play-in tournament would be for the Warriors, it’s virtually impossible they fall out of the top 10.
The No. 10-seeded Los Angeles Clippers play the 19-win New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night. They’re four games behind the Warriors in the win column going into that game, and the Clippers also are Golden State’s next opponent Monday night. More importantly, nobody below the Clippers or the No. 9-seeded Portland Trail Blazers are going to move ahead of them.
Though Curry says he’s feeling better, he also knows the unpredictability of his injury. Curry still hasn’t been on the court yet. He has found other ways to stay in shape, but that’s a big difference. He still has hurdles to clear and once he’s back on the court the biggest obstacle will be pain tolerance.
“It’s just something that you don’t want to have lingering because it can get worse,” Curry said.
Curry badly wants to rejoin the Warriors and help them make the NBA playoffs. Weighing risk and reward must lean tenfold to the latter.
His co-star, Jimmy Butler, is out for the rest of the season, and the Warriors haven’t won consecutive games since his torn ACL on Jan. 19. Draymond Green has dealt with lower back problems, and his production has dipped dramatically. The Warriors acquired 7-foot-3 big man Kristaps Porziņģis at the NBA trade deadline, and he made his team debut in the first game after the All-Star break. He hasn’t played since because of what the Warriors are listing as an illness.
Several young role players like Moses Moody, Gui Santos and Brandin Podziemski, as well as veterans De’Anthony Melton and Al Horford, have strung together some solid performances in Curry’s absence. But the Warriors also are just too devoid of top-end talent without Curry and Butler. They aren’t contending and they aren’t tanking, living instead on Mediocrity Lane.
Shutting Curry down completely isn’t an option, and he wouldn’t allow it until pushed to the edge. The next game Curry could return is March 13 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, which would be less than a month until the end of the regular season. Circling that as a return date wouldn’t be wise.
Curry will have to get at least one scrimmage in before the Warriors even think about unleashing him. Starting with March 13, the Warriors will have 17 games left in the regular season. The best guess is Curry ramps up and plays a handful of games but never both sides of the four back-to-backs the Warriors have left after his next update.
So, should the Warriors keep him on ice until the play-in tournament? It’s not in his character to extend the boundaries of caution. Yet the Warriors have to preach the importance of next season being the bigger priority while staying present in the moment and being the bare minimum of a competitive team that Curry suits up for.
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