Steph Curry made 11 of 21 shots in 26 minutes off the bench Sunday against the Rockets.
It’s still intoxicating, the hope Stephen Curry brings.
At 38, after a 27-game hiatus caused by runner’s knee, he returned Sunday to a team comfortably in 10th place in the Western Conference. He rejoined a Golden State Warriors lineup — shuffled enough to impress a Las Vegas blackjack dealer — that had 10 minutes available for a G-Leaguer called up on Saturday.
And yet, in the final seconds, against the surging and motivated Houston Rockets, something irrational crept back in. Curry had the ball. And suddenly, victory felt possible again. The future reclaimed its potential.
It doesn’t make much sense to feel this way about the Warriors. Not in a Western Conference topped with young juggernauts. Not when their best players can see 40 on the horizon and have second homes on the injury report. Not with so few remaining pathways to meaningfully improve the roster. But Curry has never needed logic.
Memory is a powerful drug. Muscle memory, too.
Curry played 26 minutes. Totaled 29 points on 21 shots off the bench. Golden State outscored Houston by 12 when he was on the floor. It’s hard not to remember when watching him shimmy, witnessing him electrify the mediocre remains of their injury-ravaged roster. And he still boasts the recall to curl off screens and launch moon shots. It’s triggering. Nostalgia-fueled expectations.
The Rockets felt it, too.
“We had the game in control,” Kevin Durant said in a postgame interview with NBC. “Then they put No. 30 in the game, and he got him back into it so easily. … He looked incredible after a couple of months off.”
On the final possession, the Rockets doubled Curry like they remembered the damage he caused them in the playoffs last year. Houston coaxed a contested 3 out of Curry — which clanked, securing the Warriors’ 117-116 defeat at Chase Center, and a losing season for just the second time in Steve Kerr’s 12 years as the team’s coach.
Still, the sentiment lingered. The result mirrored how it often went when Curry was absent. But with him, they seemed to gain proximity to a different outcome. After the Warriors went 9-18 without him, predictably unraveling late in games despite their valiant scrappiness, Curry’s presence revived the era’s last vestige: hope.
Or delusion masquerading as such.
Effort only goes so far in the NBA. Winning requires star power. And on Sunday, the Warriors got theirs back. Curry lent credence to their fantastical mission.
The short-term goal: Escape the Play-In Tournament, which requires the Warriors win two road games to earn a playoff spot. Then, take a swing at whatever big dog is up top.
It’s illogical to predict the Warriors will beat either Oklahoma City, the current No. 1, or San Antonio, the only other possible option. But it fits the Golden State paradigm. Curry is comfortable in OKC’s den, having tortured that fan base since 2016. He burned the Spurs earlier this season with back-to-back 40-pieces in the Alamo City. A nothing-to-lose shot at the best in the league? A chance to measure his remaining brilliance against his successors in superstardom?
Curry’s request isn’t for the best chance. It’s simply to have one. Obviously, a stacked roster is preferable. But the team’s consistent request has been to be in the mix. If not contenders, a viable threat to them.
He breathed more life into that vision against the Rockets. On Easter Sunday, he resurrected that old feeling. The one that begs just give Curry a shot. A real one.
“You can just feel it,” Kerr said after the game. “We’re back in the mix. We’re back in the fight with Steph.”
Punch drunk off the puncher’s chance No. 30 provides. Belief, when it lingers long enough, starts to sound like a plan.
And the Warriors can convince themselves that Jimmy Butler can find it again, even coming off an ACL injury next year at 37 years old. And they can convince themselves that director of sports medicine Rick Celebrini’s magic can overpower history and Kristaps Porziņģis will remain upright long enough for his talent to pay dividends after he re-ups with the Warriors. That they can find the proper filler pieces in the draft and free agency, even on their bench, to keep their theme song going for a fifth consecutive season.
One more run.
From the 30,000-foot view, this plan looks unreasonable. The league doesn’t work like that anymore. It belongs to youth and athleticism and rosters stocked with wings. In the NBA, hunger proves a more potent fuel than greed.
But then Curry gets back on the court and, suddenly, it doesn’t seem so ridiculous. Because he’s still the chef out there. Still excellent. Still capable of torching any team in his way. Far worse plans exist. And this one comes with the luxury of watching one of basketball’s most scintillating talents.
Thus, the long-term goal: Just give him enough quality help. And a break or two. You never know.
This year, the breaks went against the Warriors. And if Curry were fading, if the game had finally begun to move past him, the Warriors could let go without consequence. They could choose the future without FOMO.
But Curry won’t let them.
“He looked like he hasn’t missed a beat,” Houston coach Ime Udoka told reporters after the game. “A little rust early on. … But got his rhythm back. Obviously, like I said, he stretches the floor. You have to defend much higher, much different way when he’s back in the mix. He hit some big shots.”
As long as the metaverse shifts when he checks in. As long as he’s a player away from a more even fight. The Warriors have to try with him. He’s earned it. He’s worth it. Even if it fails.
Golden State couldn’t possibly pivot away from this. On a minutes restriction, Curry warped the game against one of the league’s best defenses, a team that came in on a roll and is poised to finish as high as No. 3 in the West. A reminder of No. 30’s resilient dominance. And how the Warriors can’t rebuild without guilt.
So, the pressure remains. The plan forges on: To the Play-In, perhaps to the playoffs, and certainly into next season.
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Marcus Thompson II is a lead columnist at The Athletic. He is a prominent voice in the Bay Area sports scene after 18 years with Bay Area News Group, including 10 seasons covering the Warriors and four as a columnist. Marcus is also the author of the best-selling biography “GOLDEN: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry.” Follow Marcus on Twitter @thompsonscribe
