The Golden State Warriors hope to fare better in a week without Stephen Curry than they did last time they went without their star point guard, beginning with a rematch against the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night in San Francisco.
Curry sustained a bruised right quad late in Wednesday’s 104-100 home loss to the Houston Rockets, a game in which he scored just 14 points.
An MRI taken on Thursday revealed no significant damage, yet the Warriors announced he would miss at least the next three games. Golden State hosts Oklahoma City on Tuesday before tipping off a four-game trip in Philadelphia next Thursday.
The Warriors said Curry would be re-evaluated in a week.
Curry has missed four games this season: three because of illness and a fourth while resting on the final stop of a six-game trip. The Warriors have gone 1-3 in those games, including 1-2 the last time he missed three consecutive games.
Even with Curry not providing his usual numbers, fellow Warriors veteran Jimmy Butler III claimed his team’s biggest problems in the Houston game had nothing to do with his teammate’s 4-for-13 shooting.
“We don’t box out,” Butler bemoaned to reporters after watching the Rockets snatch 25 offensive rebounds. “We don’t go with the scouting report. We let anybody do whatever they want. Open shots, get into the paint, free throws. It’s just sad.”
The Warriors had one of their better defensive performances in a 124-106 win at New Orleans on Nov. 16, harassing the Pelicans into 27.6% shooting on 3-pointers and outrebounding them 47-45.
New Orleans played that night without Zion Williamson as part of an eight-game absence due to a strained left hamstring. All told, he has missed 10 games this season, with the Pelicans losing eight of them.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft has returned to play four of the Pelicans’ last five games. He had 29 points in a 143-130 win over Chicago on Monday, then 17 in an overtime loss to Memphis on Wednesday.
The game is one the Warriors have circled on their calendar, but not because of a rare Williamson visit to San Francisco. For the Warriors, the most anticipated visiting big man will be former teammate and fan favorite Kevon Looney, who played his first 10 seasons for Golden State, during which he was part of three championship teams.
The 29-year-old left the Warriors as a free agent in July and has since been just a part-time player for the Pelicans. He never left the bench in the earlier reunion in New Orleans.
Looney sent a goodbye message to the organization and his old fans shortly after signing with the Pelicans.
“How do you say goodbye to a place that practically raised you in a lot of ways?” Looney said. “A place that saw you go from a boy to a man? A place where you’ve made so many lifelong friends and experienced some of the best times imaginable?
“I have so much to be grateful and appreciative for over the past 10 years. This place, it’s truly changed my life forever.”
Looney has not played in the Pelicans’ last two games. His last action was last Saturday against Atlanta, when he had two points and five rebounds in 14 minutes.
