Preview: at least one week without Curry

Struggling Pelicans come to SF, but can Warriors navigate without their star?

The Golden State Warriors are letting out a sigh of relief that the injury isn’t worse, but confirmed that star, Stephen Curry will be out of action for at least a week with a quad injury. After going down late in the last game, Curry underwent an MRI; the team shared yesterday that the results were reasonably positive, but will still sideline Curry for some time.

“It’s a big relief,” Kerr said after Friday’s practice. “You always worry when Steph goes down that it’s something that’s going to keep him out for a while. So, the fact that we’re taking it by the week and doesn’t appear to be anything too serious is a great sign. It gives us relief for sure.”

Today’s game against the struggling New Orleans Pelicans could offer a good chance for the Warriors to pick up a win while adjusting to the absence of their most important player - but this season has shown that nothing will be easy.

This is the Warriors’ penultimate game of their five-game home stand before hitting the road again. First, they’ll host Oklahoma City Thunder at home again on Tuesday, then travel east to Philadelphia to challenge the 76ers on Thursday. Being re-evaluated in a week means that we should hear something prior to next weekends back-to-back (Cavaliers and Bulls).

Also, note that there is some schedule weirdness associated with the NBA Cup coming up on the tail end of their upcoming road trip. After the painful loss to the Houston Rockets knocked the Warriors out of the NBA Cup tournament, they get two regular season games put on the schedule, the first on December 11 or Dec. 12, and the second on the 14th or 15th. So Curry is either back next weekend, or Golden State can give him a longer return time after the schedule eases up.

---

GAME DETAILS

WHO: Golden State Warriors (10-10) vs New Orleans Pelicans (3-6)

WHEN: Saturday, November 29th, 2025; 5:30pm PST

WATCH: NBCSBA

---

Warriors don’t need leadership, they need performance

The last time the Warriors and Pelicans saw each other, Moses Moody blew up for a new career-high of 32 points - 21 of which came in the first quarter (off of seven made threes). It was wild. I wrote glowingly about it, and what it could hopefully mean for Moody and the Warriors. He scored 4 points in his following game.

To be fair, he’s rebounded nicely, scoring 19, 10, and 13 points in the subsequent three games; but it’s emblematic of how unsteady progress has been. Moody’s roller-coaster production embodies the broader problem: the Warriors don’t lack capable players - they lack predictable ones. And when nightly contributions swing this wildly, frustration begins to bubble up in the locker room, especially from the veterans who know exactly what winning basketball requires. That’s the context that gives Jimmy Butler’s remarks their bite.

If there’s a single takeaway to carry forward from this week, it’s this: Golden State’s problems are fixable in principle - they’re executional and schematic rather than structural. That distinction matters because schematic problems can be corrected quickly (rotational discipline, box-out priorities, ball security) while structural problems - lack of size, aging legs - take trades or longer-term development to solve. Which means the next few games function as a laboratory: small adjustments will either accumulate into renewed competence or confirm the need for heavier fixes.

Sitting at 10-10, it seems fair to call this team average, but Jimmy Butler had a more severe critique of the team after they fell to the Houston Rockets, after being up by double digits for most of the game.

“We don’t box out. We don’t go with the scouting report. We let anybody do whatever they want - open shots, get into the paint, free throws. It’s just sad”

Sad?

Jimmy Butler is starting with the disappointed dad approach, which is great, but one has to wonder how this next phase of the journey is going to go. Curry’s leadership overshadows everything of course, but as we’ve seen with Draymond Green, there can be momentary flare-ups that forever alter the path of the team. I’m not saying Butler is going to go full flame mode on the team, but those comments are indicative. There’s something depressingly soft and squishy about the way that this iteration of the Warriors feels.

Weirdly, it’s not the defense that looks so bad on paper. With 20 total games played, the Warriors are about a quarter of the way through their season. According to NBA’s stats site, Golden State has the 10th-best defense; but are bottom 10 in offense (rank 22). The offense is bad enough to pull their net combination out to 16th. Crushingly average.

On quick review, it does look like Butler correctly called out the team’s lack of boxing out: they are one of the five worst teams in the league when it comes to rebound rate. Oh no wait. Turnovers, duh. The team is ranked 27th out of the NBA’s total 30 teams when it comes to coughing up the ball.

Oof.

So now, the Warriors are going to have at least three games, maybe as many as five (or more) without Curry - their biggest single solution to pretty much everything.

In his absence, the Warriors have got to run a much tighter operation. If Butler is concerned that the roster isn’t following the game plan, or doesn’t box out, that’s not really all that dependent on Curry being available or not. It’s on players like Podz and Moody and Post. The injury to Gary Payton (ankle) has him listed as Questionable, so Kerr may be forced to give extra minutes to some of the most problematic players when it comes to the above issues.

And this is going to be the biggest challenge during this upcoming week. Yes, it’s a leadership issue - because somehow these hard conversations and notes about attention to detail - but in the end, the underlying issues are about execution.

It’s hard to say that this roster is under-performing, but fairly easy to identify some gaps in expectations.

But this is what makes sports such an exciting activity: the unpredictability. Without Curry, some of the leakiest defensive holes will need to play extra minutes. Everyone will need to play a little bit better. Not just more cohesive as a unit. Better. The scouting reports and basketball fundamentals can be coached and reiterated, but in the end, those left on the court are going to have to button themselves up and focus. This isn’t just about effort, or leadership.

But in a way, this is exactly what Golden State needs at this point in the season. Kuminga and De’Anthony Melton are both tracking towards a return. The Warriors are well aware of the most urgent gaps to address, and now they get a week or so without their star to see if they can chart this out or not.

Prediction

Tonight’s game is the return of long beloved ex-Warrior (for life), Kevon Looney. The team will hand out commemorative pins. It won’t be easy, but with Butler and Green holding tight, the Warrior pick up a heartwarming win to bolster spirits ahead of Tuesday’s showdown against the defending champs.