SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry swapped out a green-and-gold snapback for a navy blue Red Sox hat, changed from his baggy gray cargo pants into sweats and walked across the Warriors’ locker room to Kristaps Porzingis and dapped up the Latvian big man.
Then, he left the building.
Steph’s newest sidekick has yet to share the floor with him, but those handshakes should soon be taking place on the hardwood. The next time Curry enters Chase Center on gameday, the hope is that his street clothes aren’t the main attraction.
“Even from afar, I was always amazed. It was a nightmare to play him,” Porzingis said. “But he was one of those players, you can’t get mad because you look at it, and it’s like, ‘Wow. What can you do?’ Now, to actually be his teammate? That’s going to be pretty cool.”
Golden State’s 118-111 loss to the Cavaliers on Thursday is expected to be the last of a 27-game absence with a knee injury that has kept Curry sidelined since Jan. 30.
In that time, the Warriors have gone 9-18 and more or less locked themselves into the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference. They also acquired Porzingis, the kind of partner with the ideal combination of size and spacing to pair with the all-time 3-point king.
The 7-foot-3 center pulls from 30 feet as casually as Curry and provides a potentially lethal pick-and-roll partner. In two months since being acquired from the Hawks, Porzingis has gotten his own health problems under control, but he’s still only gotten to know Curry off the court.
Considering the prospect of finally sharing the floor together, Porzingis could hardly contain his excitement in a brief interview at his locker with The California Post, shortly after his exchange with Curry.
“He draws so much attention. And not only does he draw the attention, with the attention already on him, he’s so effective and so good,” Porzingis raved. ”Like, he’s so good. One of the best players, like, ever. It’s unreal, the things he has done on a basketball court.”
Curry, 38, participated in his second 5-on-5 scrimmage in three days before Thursday’s game, and coach Steve Kerr said, “He looks like Steph Curry.” He will be reevaluated this weekend, and the Warriors have not set anything in stone, but word that Curry was targeting Sunday’s home game against the Rockets for his return had clearly made it around the locker room.
“I think everybody’s excited,” Brandin Podziemski said.
But the level of excitement?
“You cannot imagine it, brother,” Gui Santos chuckled ebulliently.
There’s been a noticeable shift in the mood around the team from the doldrums that dominated following the losses of Curry and Jimmy Butler. They can see light on the horizon.
“He brings hope to a tough situation,” Kerr said. “When Steph’s around, the vibe tends to be better, and it’s definitely better right now.”
While the Warriors have five games remaining starting Sunday, Kerr will likely have four at most to determine how best to deploy Curry, Porzingis and potentially Al Horford, too, before attempting to make a playoff run from the bottom seed in the play-in.
In addition to an expected minutes restriction as he returns to game action, Curry will likely sit one half of their last remaining back-to-back, next week against the Lakers and Kings.
“Hopefully we can develop a semblance of a rotation and figure out exactly who we want to play with whom and that sort of thing,” Kerr said Wednesday. “We do have a season full of information that will help us with that, but with Kristaps’ arrival, Steph hasn’t played with him. So we would have to decide, are we starting Kristaps? Are we starting Al? How much can we play Kristaps and Al together? Where does Draymond fit in that group? Which one is he better with? Those are the type of things that we’re thinking about, along with the backcourt rotation.”
Horford, 39, is still recovering from a calf strain that has cost him the past 11 games. Porzingis, for his part, told the Post that he is “getting there, but I still have a good ways to go” in regards to his health and conditioning and has “levels” he hasn’t reached yet.
Health troubles have prevented Curry from sharing the court with another teammate: His brother. Seth Curry is also trending in the right direction after a bout with sciatica.
“I know that’s one of his motivating factors for getting out there, to get us out there on the court together,” Seth Curry said. “I want to get out there with him at least one time and experience that.”
The only person yearning for Curry’s return more than his teammates is probably Steph himself. Despite no structural damage, the absence has drawn on longer than all but two others in his 17-year career. The “unpredictable” nature of the injury — runner’s knee, which can flare up if not given the proper rest — has resulted in a few false starts.
But his knee reacted positively enough to his return to practice earlier this week that Curry wanted to go public. Fans were treated to his famous pregame warm-up, in full, before the Warriors hosted the Spurs on Wednesday.
Kerr said he believed the decision was “purposeful.”
“Instead of shooting downstairs, I think he wants to feel the crowd. And show the crowd that he wants to come back,” Kerr said. “So that’s the hope.”
Now, to make it the reality.
