SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry is expected to play Sunday night against the Houston Rockets after missing the last two months because of a right knee injury.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after Saturday’s practice that Curry, who has not played since Jan. 30, has looked good in practice and that the hope is that if Curry feels good on Sunday, he will be cleared to make his return.

“It feels great,” Curry said. “A long process. Longer than I thought, but I’m just happy to have a little clarity and a little window to get back out there and try to get to the level I was playing at and finish the year strong, so I’m excited.”

Curry is officially listed as questionable, but he was in good spirits Saturday afternoon as he joked around with teammates and coaches before starting his normal shooting routine after practice.

Curry admitted that he was surprised the injury lasted as long as it did, and acknowledged a little “panic” over the last couple of weeks that he wouldn’t have enough time in the schedule to return. But he said he feels confident the knee is in good enough shape to finish out the season.

“It was more of a mental thing at first,” Curry said. “Meaning I didn’t know enough about it, and I thought I was going to be out a week, 10 days, max. But it calmed down, and every time I got on the court, or tried to push it in that first month there was always a reaction, or you knew it just wasn’t healing as fast as you thought.”

Curry said the hardest part over the last two months was trying to continue being patient as the pain lingered within the knee.

“So the patience then was tough because it’s one of those injuries that you really just have to let rest,” Curry said. “There’s nothing you can kind of push through or be on the court while it’s healing. And it’s just a different experience than most injuries that I’ve had that have like a very defined timeline and a very defined process of, ‘Do this, then you’re gonna feel this, and then this is gonna heal and you’re gonna be able to do this,’ all those checkpoints.

This is every day I wake up, the first thing you think about it is, ‘How does it feel?’ So that unpredictability was definitely a struggle throughout the whole process. And even still now, as good as I do feel now, I hope it stays that way. It’s just a matter of getting out there and seeing.”

Aside from Curry saying the knee was feeling better, the most notable part of his post-practice press conference was the acknowledgement that he wasn’t sure if the runner’s knee issue would linger heading into the future.

“Yes and no,” Curry said. “There’s nothing structurally wrong with my knee, so it’s not like I’m compromised out there. It is a new normal, though, if that makes sense. So it’s just a matter of understanding what I need to do off the court to make sure everything around my knee is strong and firing the right way. I will take full advantage of the offseason whenever it is, to have a full reset. And then you just kind of figure out what it is going into next year, but right now I kind of understand what the new normal is and it’s good enough to play.”

That new normal extends to a new daily routine. Curry sounded confident he will play in Sunday’s game, but there’s always the possibility he could wake up Sunday morning with pain in his knee. As hard as he and the Warriors’ training staff have worked to get him back to this point, that’s also part of the “new normal” that he described. It’s something Curry will be thinking about in the months ahead as well.

“It’s in the back of your mind,” Curry said. “But even if that is the case, I know I’ve done everything I can to get back out there. So I try to stay positive and optimistic, stay in the moment, and embrace the blessing of being able to play … that is part of the reason I want to come back, just to feel that adrenaline and the nerves and the competition again after this long break. And then however it plays out, I know I’ve done everything I can to give myself a shot and that’s all I can ask for.”

Kerr spoke for many within the organization while describing what the mood has been like for the Warriors with Curry back in the fold.

“He just brings hope to everybody,” Kerr said. “The sun is shining a little brighter. The food tastes a little better. Steph is Steph. He brings joy to everybody. Players, coaches, fans. He’s a special human being.”