SAN FRANCISCO — stephen curry said Saturday that his right knee rehab has been more unpredictable than he expected, as the Golden State Warriors star moved closer to a return Sunday night against the Houston Rockets. After missing the previous 27 games, Curry said he is finally back to 5-on-5 work and has medical clearance, with his status set to be listed as questionable. The stephen curry comeback comes after more than two months away with what he described as runner’s knee.
Stephen Curry says the injury never followed a clean timeline
Curry said the pain and swelling first appeared on Jan. 24 during a workout in Minneapolis, and he played through it for a few games before leaving the lineup on Jan. 30. He said he initially believed the absence would last only a week or at most 10 days, but the knee kept reacting whenever he tried to push it early in the recovery process.
“Every time I got on the court or tried to push it in that first month, there was always a reaction, ” Curry said. “You just knew it wasn’t healing as fast as you thought. ” He added that the biggest daily question has been how the knee will feel when he wakes up, calling that uncertainty one of the hardest parts of the process.
Stephen Curry calls it a ‘new normal’
Curry said this injury has felt different from the ankle, knee and tailbone issues he has dealt with before because there was no fixed timeline and he could not simply push through it while healing continued. He said there is nothing structurally wrong with the knee, but he described the long recovery as a “new normal” that may require ongoing attention.
He said he first thought he might return in mid-February after the All-Star break, then targeted a March road trip to the East, and later felt a setback a couple of weeks ago in Atlanta when he seemed close to coming back. “Played that song and dance so many times over the last two months, ” Curry said.
Warriors prepare for the race ahead
The Warriors have gone 9-18 during Curry’s absence and now sit as the firm 10th seed in the Western Conference with five games left. That means their path is unlikely to change much in the final regular-season stretch; they are headed to the bottom side of the play-in bracket and will need two road elimination wins to reach the playoffs.
Curry said the team’s immediate focus is simple: get through the play-in round and keep the season alive. “Hopefully win two play-in games, ” Curry said. “Then we can have another conversation. ”
What comes next for stephen curry
Sunday night now stands as the next checkpoint, with the Warriors expecting to see how stephen curry responds once he is back in game action. If there are no unexpected setbacks in the next 24 hours, he is expected to play, and Golden State will move forward with its star in the lineup again as the postseason picture tightens.
