Warriors Hopes Raised With Stephen Curry Boston Appearance

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Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors came up with a much-needed victory on Monday night in Washington as the team does what it can to stay afloat in the Western Conference playoff picture, where they are fortunate to be followed in the standings by a raft of tanking teams.  The Warriors have been in survival mode since Stephen Curry first had his injured knee diagnosed in February, going 6-12 in that span, as they’re already down star Jimmy Butler and have had newly acquired big man Kristaps Porzingis only occasionally available.

In that grim situation, the Warriors have been looking for any signs of light that they can find. And on Wednesday they got one in the hours before the team was slated to play Boston, whom the Warriors will surely find more of a challenge than the Wizards had been.

Curry has made the Warriors’ current Eastern Conference road trip. On Wednesday, though he was not suited up in uniform for the game, he did make an appearance and worked out at shootaround.

Stephen Curry Getting Shots in Shootaround

Warriors beat writer Anthony Slater noted on Wednesday, with a photo of Curry on Twitter/X, “Stephen Curry with the Warriors after shootaround in Boston this morning. Still getting in individual court work but hasn’t advanced to team contact work.”

The more activity from Curry, the better for the Warriors who are keeping their fingers crossed that, amid a season that has been ravaged by injury, Curry can make a return from the patellar tendinitis that has been been persisting through recent weeks. Golden State wants to get Curry back on the floor before the end of the season, and is hoping to get him some repetitions with Porzingis.

Of course, that will require that Porzingis, too, can stay healthy, and the Warriors have had trouble with that. But Porzingis has bounced back from missing six straight games with an illness to playing in four of the last six games for the Warriors. He logged 30 points in the win over Washington on Monday.

Warriors Cautiously Optimistic

Warriors coach Steve Kerr has been confident that Curry would be returning throughout the process, though some have grown skeptical. The Warriors continually say–going back to the All-Star break–that they’re going to re-evaluate Curry in 10 days, and when the 10 days are up, they declare it’ll be another 10 days.

His last re-evaluation was on March 11, so his next re-evaluation will be at the end of this week. Even when he is declared healthy, he will need time to get ready for a return to action.

Curry is averaging 27.2 points this season, with 3.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists on 46.8% field goal shooting.

Here’s what Kerr said this week about Curry’s situation, which is the line he has stuck with throughout the process: “We expect him back. He is trending in the right direction. It has been a tricky injury but  I think he’ll be back for sure,  we just don’t know if it’ll be a week or two or whatever, it’s a day to day process.”

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney