Steph Curry's long-awaited return to the court from a lingering knee issue that kept him out for over two months brought many things fans have come to expect from the face of the franchise, including thrilling deep three-pointers, magical ball-handling, and a sense of hope for the remainder of the season.
One thing that Curry brought that was unfamiliar to even the most tenured of Dub Nation, however, was his position at tipoff. Even though Curry has started a whopping 1059 games in his career, those inside Chase Center and watching on TV would not be able to find him on the court when the referee tossed up the ball.
Instead, Curry came off the bench for a regular-season game for just the 7th time in his career and the first time in over 14 years. It didn't necessarily affect his production as he still dropped 29 dazzling points in 26 minutes, and even though the Warriors weren't able to come away with a win over the Rockets, it was a promising sight to see Curry look so in tune out there.
Steve Kerr Shares Why Curry Came Off The Bench
After the game, Steve Kerr revealed why Curry came off the bench instead of being reinserted into his normal spot as the starting point guard.
"Well he and Rick (Celebrini) talked about it. The minutes, it was going to be 24, we went over a couple of minutes obviously. But he just decided he didn't want to start and then sit for a long period of time. So he just said, 'let’s play the last six minutes of each quarter,' he and Rick made that decision, and brought it to me, fine with me. So what we did was we moved our other rotations around a little bit. We wanted to get Draymond (Green) and Steph together for obvious reasons. So we changed some of the other rotations to fit Steph. Obviously, this won't last for long. He’ll be in the starting lineup soon. I’m not sure when just based on minutes."
Curry essentially played the back half of each of the four quarters, playing four minutes in the first, six minutes in the second, 7 minutes in the third, and 6 minutes in the fourth quarter.
Curry's Play Reflects Bench Performances In Playoffs
In Curry's six previous games he came off the bench in the regular season, three of them came in his rookie season in 2009, while the other three came in 2012, when he was dealing with a myriad of foot injuries.
In those six games, he was averaging under 8 points in just 14 minutes per game. In fact, one game in February 2012 saw him check in for just three seconds of action and not record a single stat.
Of course, these six regular-season games aren't the only times Curry has ever come off the bench before Sunday night, and his performance against the Rockets reflected those games, instead.
Curry had been a reserve in six different games in the playoffs, also due to injury reasons. In those games, his stats were much different.
It started with a 2016 first-round game against the Trail Blazers, where he still ended up playing 37 minutes in the overtime win, dropping 40 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists along the way. Then in 2018, Curry had 28 points in just 27 minutes while the Warriors beat the Pelicans.
Most iconically, Curry came off the bench for the first four games in the Warriors' 4-1 series win over the Nuggets in the 2022 first round. Highlights included a 34-point Game Two in just 23 minutes and a 33-point Game Four.
Ultimately, in those six bench playoff games, Curry averaged 29.7 points in 29.3 minutes per game — much more aligned with the performance he had on Sunday night.