Of course Stephen Curry is coming back for this game.
Not that it matters, of course. The Houston Rockets have lost multiple games against the Golden State Warriors over the past couple of seasons in which Curry didn’t play. Houston lost earlier this year at Toyota Center. In the one game Curry did play, Reed Sheppard had his coming out party and Houston came back and won without Kevin Durant. Maybe that’s the key? Whichever team is missing its best player wins?
Tonight starts Houston’s final road trip of the season. They will head to Phoenix to take on the Suns on Tuesday. Earlier this season when Houston went on the road to play the Warriors and Suns, Durant missed both games due to personal reasons. So it’s only fitting that Houston is playing both teams again on the same trip. The Phoenix game will be more emotional since KD’s time with the Suns ended poorly compared to his time in the Bay Area.
The Warriors are all but guaranteed to be the 10 seed in the West. Mathematically they still have a shot at 9 or even 8, but that would require something pretty extreme. In reality, they are going to need to win two road games in the play-in to play the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round. As I mentioned in the Jazz preview, this isn’t the worst year to end up in the lottery, and if they do you know the league will make sure they’re rewarded (if the lottery is rigged).
This is going to be a tough game. That building is going to be loud.
The Line (as of this post)
Looking ahead because we can
Tuesday night on the road against the Phoenix Suns