Steph Curry last took the floor for the Warriors on January 30. Since then, a nagging knee injury has kept him on the sideline. On Friday Golden State gave another update on the superstar’s status that led to an honest admission from coach Steve Kerr.

Ahead of the Dubs’ clash with the Wizards last night, the franchise announced Curry was progressing in his recovery but still was not close to returning. His next step was live five-on-five work and he’d be re-evaluated next week, which meant he’d miss (at least) the Washington game and Sunday’s matchup with the Nuggets. It was a disappointment of an update given the general hopes he’d be back sometime in March.

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Speaking on the matter to media ahead of the Wizards game, coach Steve Kerr admitted the Warriors wouldn’t bring Curry back without a ramp-up in the regular season. Which means they’re running out of time—and so is he.

“The whole idea is, if he’s healthy he’s going to play,” Kerr said. “If he’s not healthy or if there’s any risk at all, then he won’t play. That’s just how he’s built, it’s how we’re built. He clearly gives us a dramatically better chance to win a game if he’s on the floor… We’re hoping he comes back but we’re not going to take any chances.

“We’re not bringing him back [just] for the play-in game. He needs to play some games, and we need to, you know, we need to give him a runway if this is going to work, and we are running out of games. So that’s fair to say.”

After beating Washington, Golden State owns a 36–38 record on the year and hold the 10th seed in the West. The Warriors are all but fated to finish as a play-in tournament team given they are 8 1/2 games behind the sixth-seeded Timberwovles, even if that’s not technically official yet. In all likelihood the best GSW can do is climb to the ninth seed and get homecourt advantage for the first play-in game with the Trail Blazers holding only a 1/2 game lead over the Dubs, but even getting to eighth (where the Clippers hold a two-game lead) seems pretty unlikely at this stage. So there is no urgency as far as rushing Curry back to help with playoff positioning.

But only eight games remain on the schedule and the superstar shooter only just got back to live five-on-five work. If his team wants Curry to play at least three or four games as a ramp-up then this week is more or less the point of no return. If he can get cleared in time to play the Rockets next Sunday or earlier then there should be confidence he’ll return. If Curry remains out into the first week of April, though, his team will have a decision to make.

It’s a big bummer for both the Warriors and the star himself. Curry was tremendous as always in his 39 games this year, averaging 27.2 points per contest; his 4.5 three-point makes per game would lead the league by far if he qualified for the leaderboard. Golden State had its struggles this year as injuries hit the roster around Curry but might’ve made some noise in the playoffs after landing Kristaps Porziņģis at the deadline. Now it’s a long shot we’ll even see Curry take the floor for play-in basketball, much less postseason basketball.

The clock is ticking.

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