Stephen Curry went through a full second scrimmage with the Warriors on Thursday, and afterward coach Steve Kerr said, “He looked like Steph Curry.”
That’s good enough for the Warriors: Curry is expected to be cleared to return to play on Sunday, when the Warriors take on the Houston Rockets on NBC Sunday Night Basketball, reports Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of ESPN.
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This was expected, Sunday had been Curry’s target for more than a week. This would give him as many as five games before the end of the season to get his legs under him and rekindle some chemistry with his teammates after a lengthy absence.
Curry has been out since Jan. 30 due to “runner’s knee” — and he strained his adductor during rehab — missing 27 games. Without him, Golden State has gone 9-18 and fallen to 10th in the West, which is very likely where they will finish. The Warriors will need to win two games on the road just to get out of the play-in and into the No. 8 seed.
Because of the Warriors’ long odds of making the playoffs, there have been some calls to have Curry shut it down for the rest of the season, but that is not something he wanted, according to reports out of the Bay Area. Curry is the greatest Warrior player ever, the biggest draw the franchise has ever had, and with that he has the power — if he wants to play, he will be allowed to do so.
When Curry, 38, has been healthy this season, he is averaging 27.2 points and 4.8 assists a game, shooting 39.1% from 3-point range. It remains his gravity on offense that opens up everything for everyone else, particularly with Jimmy Butler (ACL) out for the rest of the season.
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You can catch Curry’s return to the court Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock as part of a Sunday Night Basketball double header (the Lakers at the Mavericks is the early game, a matchup that loses a little luster if Luka Doncic is out due to his hamstring injury).
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