Steph Curry returned to the basketball court Tuesday for the first time since injuring his leg on Feb. 4. After the Warriors got their first practice in after the All-Star break, Curry tested out his knee with some individual work and didn’t have any setbacks.
The Warriors offered a brief update on their superstar Wednesday afternoon after he was recently re-evaluated.
“The re-evaluation indicated that Curry is making good progress,” the team statement said. “He has started various individual on-court workouts, which will continue in the coming days. He will be re-evaluated again in one (1) week.”
The Warriors will play in four games over the next week while Curry will remain sidelined, against the Lakers (Thursday), Rockets (Friday), Timberwolves (Sunday) and Trail Blazers (Tuesday). It’s almost a blessing that Curry got injured before the break, as the nine-day layoff has limited his absence to just five games in 18 days so far.
These medical updates from the Warriors are ambiguous, but perhaps the first time we could see Curry back is on March 2 against the Los Angeles Clippers, or the following night, when the Warriors wrap up a five-game homestand against the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Warriors went 6-5 when Curry missed 11 games with a left shoulder injury earlier this season and are 2-3 in the five contests since he went down with his knee injury. Sitting at 29-29, Golden State currently occupies the No. 9 seed in the revamped West with 24 games to go.
Klay Thompson needs to remain hot, as he has averaged 26.6 points with six 3-pointers made per game and a 44.1 percent clip from beyond the arc in the five recent games without Steph. The fact he was cleared for a back-to-back recently was huge. Jordan Poole also needs to remain a big scoring threat and distributor in Steph’s absence.
With Curry’s possible return on the horizon and Gary Payton II (core muscle) rehabbing to get back in the regular season, Golden State can’t get healthy soon enough.
