Warriors’ Steph Curry eyes return Sunday after successful workout: Sources

SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry is targeting Sunday’s home game against the Houston Rockets for his possible return, a league and team source told The Athletic on Tuesday afternoon.

Curry, the 38-year-old who has been out since Jan. 30 with a right knee injury, went through his first full practice in two months Tuesday. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Curry was scheduled to take part in five-on-five scrimmaging after practice — a significant step that Curry hasn’t been able to take since leaving a loss to the Detroit Pistons in the Warriors’ final game in January. So long as Curry continues to progress, the tentative plan is for him to return against the Rockets.

“He went through a full practice, but it was very light,” Kerr said. “We didn’t do anything live. He’s gonna scrimmage right now five-on-five. It’s a good step for him.”

Kerr told reporters earlier Tuesday Curry will be out Wednesday against the San Antonio Spurs and would be “doubtful” for Thursday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Still, with two off days before the Rockets game offering a natural ramp-up to a return, Kerr sounded cautiously optimistic about Curry being back this season. The Warriors (36-39), who are currently in 10th place in the Western Conference and trying to catch the ninth-place Portland Trail Blazers (38-38) to host their first Play-In game, have seven regular-season games remaining.

“We got to see how he responds to the scrimmage,” Kerr said. “And then we’ll just take it day by day. … It’s just a progression from here. If he’s feeling well, we’ll scrimmage again and we’ll just kinda go from there.”

A team source later said Curry handled the scrimmage well, but his status will continue to be assessed daily. Curry has continued to push behind the scenes to make a return and was hopeful he would have a few games to get a rhythm before the start of the Play-In games April 15. While Sunday’s game against the Rockets would leave five regular-season games for Curry, it’s unlikely he would play both sides of the Warriors’ final back-to-back next week (at home against the Lakers on April 9 and at Sacramento on April 10).

Warriors forward Gui Santos echoed a sentiment held by many within the Warriors’ organization while describing the lift Curry’s presence brought to the rest of the group at Tuesday’s practice.

“It’s amazing, man,” Santos said. “Just to have him out there with us, it’s always great. We have a lot more confidence when we have a guy like Steph on the court. There’s no doubt about it.”

Curry told The Athletic earlier this month he had no desire to sit out the rest of the season and would play whenever the training staff cleared him.

“That’s not who we are,” Curry told The Athletic after the Warriors’ 110-107 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 15. “If we have stuff to play for, we play. So, I’m working to get back.”