{"id":633476,"date":"2026-03-02T01:57:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/633476\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T01:57:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:57:27","slug":"should-warriors-shut-steph-curry-down-until-nba-play-in-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/633476\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Warriors shut Steph Curry down until NBA play-in? \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wait for Steph Curry\u2019s<\/a> return from\u00a0right patellofemoral pain syndrome continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curry during the Warriors\u2019 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night told ESPN\u2019s Malika Andrews<\/a> \u201cit\u2019s going to be a little longer.\u201d The Warriors on Sunday provided the latest update on Curry<\/a>, saying he again will be re-evaluated in another 10 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Per the Warriors, Curry is\u00a0\u201cmaking progress\u201d and\u00a0will miss at least five more games before the next update.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 \u201crunner\u2019s knee.\u201d The Warriors went 4-6 in February and now are 8-13 without Curry during the 2025-26 NBA season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Predicting when Curry will return is a waste of everybody\u2019s time. After missing five consecutive games leading up to the NBA All-Star break, the hope was Curry would return in the Warriors\u2019 first game back on Feb. 19 against the Boston Celtics. But a setback working out during the break halted him and reset Curry\u2019s clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. He likely would have made an All-NBA team if he didn\u2019t become ineligible since he won\u2019t reach the 65-game minimum requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Golden State\u2019s preseason goal of being a top-six seed in the Western Conference is gone. Warriors coach Steve Kerr admitted Saturday night<\/a> that it’s something he and his team don\u2019t even talk about anymore. There\u2019s no need, and he knows it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot to make up with 22 games left. \u2026 It\u2019s not anything that is worth discussing because we just have to try to go out and win and see what happens,\u201d Kerr said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019 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\u2019s virtually impossible they fall out of the top 10.<\/p>\n

The No. 10-seeded Los Angeles Clippers play the 19-win New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night. They\u2019re four games behind the Warriors in the win column going into that game, and the Clippers also are Golden State\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though Curry says he\u2019s 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\u2019s a big difference. He still has hurdles to clear and once he\u2019s back on the court the biggest obstacle will be pain tolerance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just something that you don’t want to have lingering because it can get worse,\u201d Curry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curry badly wants to rejoin the Warriors and help them make the NBA playoffs. Weighing risk and reward must lean tenfold to the latter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His co-star, Jimmy Butler, is out for the rest of the season, and the Warriors haven\u2019t won consecutive games since his torn ACL on Jan. 19. Draymond Green has dealt with lower back problems, and his production has dipped dramatically<\/a>. The Warriors acquired 7-foot-3 big man Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is at the NBA trade deadline, and he made his team debut in the first game after the All-Star break. He hasn\u2019t played since because of what the Warriors are listing as an illness<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several young role players like Moses Moody, Gui Santos and Brandin Podziemski, as well as veterans De\u2019Anthony Melton and Al Horford, have strung together some solid performances in Curry\u2019s absence. But the Warriors also are just too devoid of top-end talent without Curry and Butler. They aren\u2019t contending and they aren\u2019t tanking, living instead on Mediocrity Lane.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shutting Curry down completely isn\u2019t an option, and he wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019t be wise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, should the Warriors keep him on ice until the play-in tournament? It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wait for Steph Curry\u2019s return from\u00a0right patellofemoral pain syndrome continues.\u00a0 Curry during the Warriors\u2019 blowout loss to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,479,164,4025,4024,6,932,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-633476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-goldenstate","12":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-steph-curry","15":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116157108597938926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}