The Golden State Warriors have their eye on the postseason, and will keep Steph Curry fresh for that.
In a rare instance, Stephen Curry and LeBron James won't share the court in the regular season this year. The Golden State Warriors ruled out Curry for Thursday night’s matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers, ensuring that the two NBA legends won’t face off in the regular season once this year. The Warriors are carefully managing Curry’s return, and accordingly, would prefer to sit him on the front end of a back-to-back. Curry will instead play in Friday’s game against the Sacramento Kings.
The first opportunity for a Curry-James matchup game on opening night, but James missed it due to sciatica. In the next two matchups, Curry was out with the persisting right knee issue that kept him out of 27 games. With Curry in his 17th NBA season, and James in his 23rd, the two have faced off 27 times in the regular season and 28 times in the postseason. James’ teams had the edge in the regular season, going 14-13, but Curry’s squad went 17-11 in the playoffs. For a 28th time this season, Curry’s squad will be without the star again. He returned Sunday after a 27-game absence, scoring 43 points in a combined 51 minutes off the bench the past two games. They’ll need that juice in the postseason rather than a withering Lakers team.
Here is the full story from Warriors Roundtable writer Kyle Ngo on the impact of Steph’s return, something that will be more valuable in the play-in game.
Golden State currently are locked into the 10th seed, requiring two road play-in wins to reach the playoffs as the eighth seed. They’ll need Curry to last more than 30 minutes, at least they hope, against Sacramento in preparation for that elimination game on Wednesday. With that importance looming, the Warriors are prioritizing their franchise star’s health over a marquee matchup.