When the Golden State Warriors resume their season Thursday night, the first step in a 27-game sprint, it doesn’t take deep basketball insight to identify the core factors of their flickering playoff hopes.
advertise
They need Stephen Curry on the court to have any realistic chance.
Curry missed the 121-110 loss to the Boston Celtics at Chase Center, his sixth straight game with a right knee injury. For the Warriors and their fans, his continued absence is the latest frustrating twist in a tumultuous 2025-26 campaign.
Warriors forward Jimmy Butler suffered a season-ending ACL tear on January 19. The Jonathan Kuminga saga continued into February, when the Warriors eventually traded him. Now, Curry, the franchise’s centerpiece who remains one of the NBA’s most productive and entertaining players as he approaches his 38th birthday, finds himself in a maddening predicament.
The Warriors missed more than just his 27.2 points per game, majestic long-range shooting and creative finishing at the rim. They miss the unique bravado and swagger that comes with having Stephen Curry by your side.
advertise
“This league is built on star players and playing through stars,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “A big part of it is the confidence those guys bring. So we have to learn to play without Jimmy and Steph, and that means bringing the energy, finding a little bit of confidence without those guys.
“It’s not going to be easy, but we have to find a way to do it.”
The Warriors are 23-16 this season with Curry on the court and 6-11 without Curry. Kerr knew his team would have to adopt a different style to succeed without No. 30 — faster, with fewer turnovers and destroying the offensive glass.
They did most of that on Thursday night (eight turnovers and 11 offensive rebounds), but the Celtics still crushed them. That doesn’t bode well for another elite team, the Denver Nuggets, and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic coming to Chase Center on Sunday.
“We’re in the same situation with or without Steph,” center Al Horford said.
advertise
The Warriors hope Curry can return to Boston to face the legendary team he memorably defeated in the 2022 NBA Finals. But he reported persistent pain and swelling in his knee after the All-Star break, prompting the Warriors to announce that he would be re-evaluated on March 1.
That means he’ll miss at least the next four games, and possibly more, with what the team describes as patellofemoral pain syndrome and a bone contusion in his right knee. Curry’s injury is commonly known as “runner’s knee.”
Dr. Nirav Pandya, a professor of orthopedics at the University of California, San Francisco, posted on Curry underwent another MRI Wednesday night, his second since the knee began bothering him 3 1/2 weeks ago, and the results showed no structural damage, according to a team statement.
Dr. Kevin Stone, an orthopedic surgeon at Stone Clinic in San Francisco, took heart from the news.
“When they say there’s no structural damage, that means it’s inflammation and not a tear,” Stone told the Chronicle in an interview. “We see a lot of inflammation in jumpers or runners.
advertise
“What causes this? We think that when you land hard or push in a weird way, the tissue itself develops tiny microtears. So instead of healing, it becomes inflammatory and sometimes becomes chronic. That’s because the tiny microtears don’t heal.”
Stone said the recovery time from an injury like Curry’s can vary widely. Treatments to suppress inflammation include ice, ultrasound, and soft tissue massage. But the pain may be constant and limited.
Stone describes the most effective method as “active rest,” which allows the athlete to stay active without putting too much stress on the joints.
When Curry is healthy, he has the credentials to be one of the most active athletes in NBA history. He logged astonishing mileage as he moved around the court without the ball, constantly looking for open spots.
Curry is halfway through his 17th season in the league, and that accumulated movement could lead to the injuries he’s now nursing.
advertise
Dr. Kenton Fibel, a sports medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Orthopedics in Los Angeles and medical director of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, said it’s not uncommon for basketball players to develop runner’s knee (sometimes called jumper’s knee).
“Athletes definitely start to experience degeneration in their joints,” Feibel said. “Throughout a career, you see some chronic changes. Sometimes there are obvious triggers, sometimes there aren’t.”
Feibel, like Stone, did not treat Curry and spoke only about the injury in general terms, acknowledging that runners’ knee can occasionally mask other knee issues.
“In fact, some of these athletes will have cartilage changes that sometimes lead to longer recovery times,” Feibel said. “These athletes develop swelling and more serious problems.”
advertise
Asked whether Curry’s continued swelling more than three weeks later could be a sign of cartilage issues, Fieber said: “It’s possible.”
It’s natural to wonder how Curry’s age affects his recovery and eventual return to the court. He turns 38 on March 14, an age at which few NBA players — especially guards who can run as well as Curry — remain healthy and productive.
But at least from a medical standpoint, Fieber and Stone don’t think Curry’s age is a factor. “His age doesn’t mean it’s going to take him longer to recover,” Feibel said nonchalantly.
“You’re either healed or you’re not healed,” Stone said. “So the 37-year-old still has the potential to heal the tissue. There’s no reason why he can’t make a full recovery.”
advertise
His return can’t come soon enough for the Warriors, who are currently 29-27 and threatening to slip down the Western Conference standings. They remain in eighth place, but after Thursday they are just 1.5 games ahead of the ninth-place Clippers and two games ahead of the 10th-place Trail Blazers.
Let’s face it: Without Curry, the Golden State Warriors simply aren’t a good team. If he continues to miss games, they will continue to lose games.
“That’s a big difference and we can’t lie to ourselves,” Horford said. “You try to figure things out, but he just does so much. We saw scores and big plays, but it’s also the way you attack and the things he doesn’t get recognized for – whether it’s assists or layups, a lot of things open the door for the rest of us.”
Those things aren’t open just yet, so the Warriors will need young players like Moses Moody and Brandin Pozzimski to make that long-awaited improvement. They need Draymond Green to rediscover his old form, though Green is struggling — he was held scoreless Thursday night and the Warriors were outscored by 28 points against him.
advertise
The next seven weeks, leading up to the end of the regular season on April 12, could be a long one.
This article was originally published on The Warriors without Stephen Curry face a harsh reality: Without No. 30, it’s a mountain too high to climb.
