HOUSTON \u2014 As the days left in the regular season continue to roll off the calendar, Golden State Warriors stalwart Draymond Green remains hopeful that star guard Stephen Curry will be able to return before the season comes to a close. Curry has been out since Jan. 30 because of runner\u2019s knee and his return continues to be unclear \u2014 but Green is confident that Curry will return before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy confidence level is high ultimately because he\u2019s going to put in all the work and do everything he can to get back,\u201d Green said after Thursday\u2019s surprising 115-113 overtime win over the Houston Rockets. \u201cAnd if his body allows him to get back, I know he will come back. He\u2019s not one to just shut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green said that Curry was texting him \u201ca bunch of exclamation points,\u201d after Thursday\u2019s win in a building where the pair has dominated the Rockets through the years. Notably, Green said that even after being Curry\u2019s teammate for 13 seasons, he knows this absence is weighing on the two-time MVP. Thursday marked the 12th straight game Curry has missed, with no set return date on the horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, we just got to stay afloat,\u201d Green said. \u201cNobody\u2019s expecting us to go on a ten game winning streak, but you just got to stay afloat. You can\u2019t let things go too far south. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do and tonight\u2019s a big step towards that goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re never going to see him rattled, but I know him well enough, it\u2019s been a little challenging. Needless to say, he\u2019s staying around the guys, staying positive. He\u2019s texting me today like, \u2018Keep going, I know it\u2019s tough, but promise you I\u2019m coming back.\u2019 He does a great job staying in it even when he\u2019s not here or playing, does a great job of staying in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The good news for the Warriors is that as Curry tries to rehab his way back on the floor, veteran big man Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is is also doing more on the floor after missing six straight games because of an illness.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old told The Athletic he was feeling better but otherwise declined to comment on his recovery process as the Warriors hope he is able to do more over the next few days.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo timeline,\u201d Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Porzi\u0146\u0123is before Thursday\u2019s game. \u201cBut he\u2019s on the (road) trip, and he\u2019s gonna get a workout today, and we\u2019ll just take it day by day from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr hesitated to provide much more of an update on Porzi\u0146\u0123is, who was acquired from the Atlanta Hawks at last month\u2019s trade deadline in exchange for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield. The 30-year-old big man has only played in one game for the Warriors, and his uncertain status has lingered within the organization.<\/p>\n
Last October, Porzi\u0146\u0123is told The Athletic that he had been diagnosed with POTS<\/a> (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), which had limited him to just 42 games during the 2024-25 season with the Boston Celtics. The Warriors were outwardly confident they could help Porzi\u0146\u0123is stay on the floor \u2014 he has played just 60 games over the last two seasons \u2014 but haven\u2019t resolved this most recent issue. Last Friday, Kerr told 95.7 The Game in San Francisco that Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh told him Porzi\u0146\u0123is didn\u2019t have POTS. A day later, he walked those comments back, saying he made a \u201cstupid mistake<\/a>\u201d trying to speak about Porzi\u0146\u0123is\u2019 condition.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great that he\u2019s here and great that he\u2019s feeling well enough to be on the trip,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cHopefully that bodes well for him playing soon.\u201d<\/p>\n While Porzi\u0146\u0123is has gone through on-court workouts over the last couple of days, he has yet to be fully cleared to practice. The Warriors will travel to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder on Saturday before ending this three-game road trip against the Utah Jazz on Monday.<\/p>\n For his part, Green said the rest of the locker room isn\u2019t concerned about when Porzi\u0146\u0123is returns and only wants to support their new teammate as he tries to get healthy again and stay on the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no uncertainty because we don\u2019t really operate like that,\u201d Green said. \u201cWhen a guy is hurt, or sick or whatever, there\u2019s no one around here like pressuring you, making you feel pressure like \u2018Yo, what\u2019s going on?\u2019 We don\u2019t move that like that.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I don\u2019t think in this locker room we feel the uncertainty as much as everyone else does \u2026 we know if he\u2019s healthy he\u2019s gonna get back out there. When he\u2019s healthy he\u2019ll be out there. We don\u2019t sit around pressuring guys to make them feel this angst that they got to get back. You\u2019ll get back when you can get back and we know that. There\u2019s not much uncertainty about him floating around this locker room at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Porzi\u0146\u0123is\u2019 absence is one of several for a depleted Warriors group. Jimmy Butler (ACL), Steph Curry (knee) and Seth Curry (sciatica) all remain out, while Moses Moody (wrist sprain) and Gary Payton II (ankle) did not play in Thursday\u2019s game. Seth Curry, who has only played in two games this season, went through a pregame workout and said he was getting closer to returning. Two-way guard LJ Cryer, who spent part of his college career at the University of Houston just miles from the Rockets\u2019 arena, played 20 minutes Thursday after missing several weeks because of a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 As the days left in the regular season continue to roll off the calendar, Golden State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2243,355,99],"class_list":["post-507095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}