SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry scored 29 points in 26 minutes Sunday night against the Houston Rockets, capping an emphatic comeback performance after a 27-game absence that was missing only the final punctuation mark.
Curry led the Warriors by 10 points in the final five minutes and made the winning 30-footer at the buzzer, but missed the jumper by long and the Warriors lost 117–116.
“It felt great when it came out of his hand,” Rockets forward Kevin Durant said. “I was a little nervous seeing that ball in the air.”
Curry’s night started with a bang. He volunteered to come off the bench to help manage his minutes and fill in for his brother, Seth Curry, in the game with 4:54 left in the first quarter, which received a standing ovation from the crowd. On his first sequence, Curry missed and committed a traveling violation.
“The first run was tough,” Curry said. “The second run was great.”
Curry played the last six minutes of the second quarter and began to build momentum, scoring seven points.
In the third quarter, Kerr finally pulled it out, playing the final 7:58 minutes of the quarter with Curry. Curry scored 11 points in that stint and added 11 more in seven fourth-quarter minutes, finishing with 29 and pushing his minutes total past the initial plan of about 24.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said, “I don’t think there’s a stronger defender in the league than Amen Thompson to play his first game for him.” “It’s quite an ordeal. Steph looked amazing.”
Curry said after the game that he expected a similar workload against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night, but acknowledged that the NBA calendar creates urgency.
There are only four games left in the regular season, and Curry is likely to play in only three of them before the Warriors face do-or-die elimination games in the play-in tournament against the LA Clippers or the Portland Trail Blazers next week. They will have to win twice to make it to the playoffs.
“Got to be smart and do the right things for the right reasons,” Curry said. “I’m just looking forward to Tuesday.”
Kerr said that Curry will re-enter the starting lineup at some point in the near future, but the franchise is taking a cautious approach due to an “unexpected” knee injury that has kept him out for more than two months, after he initially said they thought he would only miss 7–10 days.
Curry called “runner’s knee” – the constant pain and swelling he must manage – his “new normal”, although he reiterated that there are no structural problems with his right knee and he does not feel compromised.
The Warriors are 36-42, meaning they will finish below .500 for the first time since the 2019-20 season. They are almost certain to be seeded 10th, but believe they can get back to playoff threat with Curry in the lineup in the coming days and veteran center Al Horford likely to return by the weekend due to a calf strain.
“You can just feel it,” Kerr said. “We’re back in the mix. We’re back in the battle with Steph. … It doesn’t take much for him to get his rhythm. His rhythm is also our rhythm. … He changes everything.”
