Stephen Curry could have played on Sunday, but Golden State has a pretty busy week ahead.
The Golden State Warriors concluded their 2023-24 regular season on Sunday with a home game against the Utah Jazz. Before the game tipped off, the Warriors announced that superstar guard Stephen Curry would not be suiting up for the game.
While Curry’s absence might cause concern given Golden State is on the cusp of a postseason chase, the decision to let him rest came from head coach Steve Kerr, who believes the Warriors will need Curry in top form for the games that are still left to be played.
“[Curry] could play. If he had to play, he would be playing,” Kerr said before the game. “Given what we are facing, it made no sense to put him out there today. We’re hoping that we’ve got three games this week, so getting a rest today, getting time to recover before that first play-in game, that’s much more important.”
“It made no sense to put [Curry] out there today.” — Steve Kerr
Curry wasn’t the only Warrior to sit out on Sunday, with teammate Draymond Green joining him on the bench as the rest of the Golden State roster faced off against the Jazz.
The Warriors’ Most Important Games Are Still Ahead
Golden State had a little bit to play for on Sunday, but will have everything to play for later this week.
Heading into their game against the Jazz, the Warriors still had a chance at improving their playoff position.
Golden State entered the day in tenth place in the Western Conference, but had an outside chance of jumping all the way up to eighth place if things broke their way. A move into eighth would be big, as it would get them into the first game of the play-in tournament and thus give the Warriors two shots at winning their way into the full postseason field.
That said, it was far more likely that Golden State would either remain in tenth, or jump only into ninth place. In either scenario, their only path to the field of 16 playoff teams would be to win two straight games in the play-in tournament.
In giving Curry and Green the chance to rest on Sunday, Kerr decided that he would rather the Warriors take their fate into their own hands at full strength than roll the dice by hoping the right teams won and lost around the league.
As Kerr noted, all games that have related postseason ramifications are played at the same time on the final day of the season, and while there was a small chance that scoreboard watching would change their strategy, it wasn’t very likely.
“We’ll be aware of the scores but in today’s NBA, the Lakers are up 15 with five minutes left, it’s not over,” Kerr said. “It would have to be a 30-point game in one direction or the other to start thinking [about changing our game plan]. Since the games are at the same time, which is by design, I don’t anticipate that will be a factor.”
Barring a drastic shuffling of the standings on Sunday, the Warriors will play a do-or-die play-in tournament game on Tuesday night. At least Curry will be fully rested for the contest.
