Franchise rivals Spurs, Cavs take advantage of limping Warriors in Curry's absence
Old rivals returned in new forms while Steph watched it all. Sunday, he stops watching.
Well, well, well.
Word comes down that Steph Curry is coming back Sunday. Interesting timing, because this week didn’t just feel like a couple losses. It felt like something older than that. Like the past walking back into the building in new bodies, looking around, and realizing the king wasn’t home.
San Antonio showed up first. For years, the Spurs represented the old guard, the version of basketball the Warriors had to grow into and eventually surpass. Big bodies, sharp minds, skill everywhere, everything connected. They tested Golden State physically and intellectually, forced them to evolve, and when the Warriors finally broke through, they didn’t just beat San Antonio. They replaced them as rulers of the Western Conference cemented as the Spurs started aging out, dealing with injuries, trying to hold onto something already slipping through their fingers. The Warriors took full advantage and didn’t apologize for it either.
Sound familiar? It’s not about holding on to a dynasty forever, it’s about threading the spirit to the next chapter as efficiently and diabolically as possible.
Now here comes the next version of San Antonio, and it doesn’t look anything like the one Golden State learned to solve. Built around Victor Wembanyama and a swarm of guards, this is a different problem entirely. Longer, faster, more reckless in how it attacks you. On April Fools’ Night, there was nothing funny about it. Wembanyama went for 41 points and 18 rebounds on 16-for-22 shooting, and the Spurs ran the Warriors off their own floor, 127-113. San Antonio is chasing Oklahoma City for the top seed like they have something to prove to a league that disrespected them for years.
They do. And they proved it on the Warriors’ floor while Steph watches in street clothes. Noted.
Then Cleveland walked in and pressed on the same bruise. That matchup always carries weight because no team is tied to the Warriors’ story like the Cavaliers. We’re talking four Finals, a rivalry that tested everything about Golden State’s identity. You can point to Harrison Barnes if you want (and I will wholeheartedly join you). But the truth is the Warriors answered Cleveland’s best shot, then answered again, and buried that version of the Cavaliers so completely that LeBron James himself decided to leave. Cleveland said okay what if we got another James though?
They brought the bearded one James Harden in the mix, a man the Warriors have spent a decade haunting showing up in a different uniform, trying a new angle on the same old story. They didn’t overwhelm Golden State to win Thursday night. They just stayed steady while the Warriors searched for something to hold onto. The 118-111 final felt right for how the game moved. Controlled, deliberate, closed on Cleveland’s terms.
Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos both scored 25 points. These young men are fighting with everything available to them; trust me they are not losing because they aren’t trying. They’re losing because without Curry the floor has no gravity. Defenses don’t panic. Possessions don’t chain-react into something better than what was drawn up. Every action has to be solved straight up, no shortcuts, no threat bending the room before the play even develops. Without Curry, forget about it. At this level, that difference compounds quietly until it you lose.
And that’s the part that lingers. While all of this is happening, while evolution and reconstruction are taking turns walking into his building like they own it, Steph is watching. Watching old rivals crawl back into relevance. Watching them move through Chase Center like the address changed while he was gone.
Then he looks at the schedule. Houston on Sunday? After twenty-seven games missed?
You cannot see that number 27 next to Houston without feeling something shift in the back of your mind. Never forget their 27 consecutive missed threes. Game 7, their season collapsing in real time while the Warriors stood there and watched the Rockets drown in deep playoff waters.
Now here they are again, with Kevin Durant back in the building. A man who has never won a championship outside the Golden Empire he joined in 2016 and left in 2019, returning to play in front of the crowd that willed him to be a champion, facing the point guard who made it possible.
The danger is that this Warriors team is 36-41. They need to win the Play-In twice just to reach the playoffs as the eighth seed, where Oklahoma City’s 60-win machine would be waiting in the first round. Curry hasn’t played in two months. He’s going to need time to find his rhythm, rebuild his conditioning, and rediscover the timing that makes everything around him work. A handful of regular-season games is not a lot of runway. The margin for error between now and April 15th is essentially nothing. All it takes is one bad landing or one flare-up. One night where the knee decides it’s not ready. The dynasty is not dead, but it is fighting against the dying light, and the light is getting dimmer.
The rest of the league knows it too. Steph Curry watched old rivals walk into his house and act like the lease was up. He had to endure the sight of evolution and reconstruction taking turns reminding everyone what Chase Center feels like without him.
Sunday’s return isn’t random, nor is it just a comeback. It’s the beginning of the Golden Empire’s last chance to balance the NBA universe this season.
Great writing. I would change last sentence. Change nba balance next season
Another well-written article by the Gold-Blooded King!
Sometimes when a star comes back from a long absence, he somehow finds a way to take over that first game back, even if he's rusty. Steph has done it before. And we're playing Houston. So... there's a chance!