The three-pointer dropped. Stephen Curry grabbed his right side. With 7:22 remaining in the first quarter at Houston’s Toyota Center on November 11, 2026, Curry curled around a Draymond Green screen and buried a deep three. Golden State trailed 17-10. Instead of retreating comfortably on defense, Curry winced and signaled toward the bench. Less than a minute later, during a timeout with 6:25 remaining and Houston ahead 19-10, he headed down the tunnel. His night ended with three points in five minutes and 35 seconds.
Golden State had dragged itself out of an 0-3 hole with eight consecutive victories. Houston ended that run with a 115-108 win, dropping the Warriors to 8-4. By Thursday morning, an MRI had revealed an oblique abdominal tear. The Warriors announced a two-week re-evaluation for their 38-year-old superstar, but ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the organization was bracing for an absence closer to a month.
That distinction changes everything. An oblique tear can rob a shooter of the core strength and rotation behind his release. Every off-ball cut, screen curl and deep pull-up demands work from that injured area. November 26 represents a medical checkpoint, not a date Kerr can circle for Curry’s return.
Two nights earlier, the Warriors had dismantled New Orleans 138-87, finishing a perfect six-game homestand with 37 assists. Curry and Brandin Podziemski each scored 25 points. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg added 23. After an ugly opening week, Golden State finally looked like a team with enough young talent to support its aging championship core. Through ten appearances, Curry averaged 27.8 points, 3.9 assists and 3.7 rebounds while shooting 50% from the field and 45.7% from three. At 38, he was still producing numbers that would headline an MVP campaign for someone a decade younger. One torn oblique later, Golden State must confront an uncomfortable possibility: some of its offensive revival may belong to Curry alone. Five distinct tests will determine whether the Warriors can sustain their resurgence without him.
1. The Warriors Must Rebuild Their Offense Without Curry’s Gravity
Watch Green receive the ball after setting a screen for Curry. Two defenders often chase the shooter, leaving Green with a clear view of the remaining three defenders. A cutter slips behind the weak-side wing. The corner opens. Within seconds, Golden State creates a layup or an uncontested three without Curry touching the ball again. Curry’s presence works like a hostile corporate takeover. He acquires defensive attention that should belong to four other players, leaving opponents scrambling to protect whatever space remains. Remove him, and defenders can stay home. Golden State’s familiar passing lanes become crowded, while the same screens produce smaller advantages.
There is evidence that the Warriors can survive those stretches. Through their first 12 games, Golden State outscored opponents by 2.3 points per 100 possessions across 318 minutes without Curry on the floor. That positive net rating offers encouragement. Still, ordinary bench minutes differ from facing an opponent that spends its entire scouting session preparing for Curry’s absence. Houston supplied a warning. The Warriors attempted 51 three-pointers and made 17, a 33.3% conversion rate. Some came from productive ball movement. Others reflected the difficulty of finding clean looks against a defense that no longer needed to send extra bodies toward No. 30. Volume without quality becomes expensive chucking.
Kerr should lean harder on elbow actions involving Green, with guards cutting around him and Lendeborg diving behind the defense. A screen that fails to free a shooter can still create a mismatch in the paint. Put two moving threats on the same side, and Golden State can force defenders into decisions without demanding a 30-foot shooting threat. Green dished seven assists in roughly 27 minutes against Houston. His passing remains essential, but his mileage imposes a limit on the experiment. At 36, Green cannot carry both ends of the floor every night. The first adjustment starts with accepting that limitation. Golden State needs Green to organize its offense, not spend an entire month rescuing it.
2. Brandin Podziemski and Yaxel Lendeborg Face Their Biggest Test Yet
Houston had pushed its fourth-quarter advantage to double digits when Podziemski helped drag the Warriors back within five with a four-point play. He finished with 22 points, six rebounds, four assists and four three-pointers. His aggression gave Golden State a chance to steal a game that could easily have slipped away after Curry’s exit. Now the training wheels come off. Podziemski must handle possessions against defenders who previously devoted their best perimeter coverage to Curry. Against a switching defense, he needs to turn a slower big man around the corner. When opponents trap him above the arc, the release pass must arrive before the second defender closes the window.
The real examination comes with eight seconds on the shot clock. Can Podziemski create a decent attempt when the first action fails? Can he put a defender on his hip, hold off the recovery and deliver a pass to the rolling big? Those possessions separate a genuine lead guard from an excellent player working inside someone else’s offense. I would rather see Podziemski struggle through those decisions than watch Kerr bury him in a conservative veteran rotation. Golden State has spent years balancing its championship ambitions with the development of younger players. If the organization believes Podziemski belongs in its future, he deserves the ball during the difficult minutes, too.
Lendeborg faces a different assignment. The rookie hammered Houston for 25 points and 10 rebounds in 36 minutes, knocking down nine field goals and earning eight free-throw attempts. His third career double-double gave the Warriors something they desperately needed: scoring that did not begin with a Curry screen. Kerr can exploit Lendeborg’s size through inverted pick-and-rolls, where a smaller guard screens for the forward and forces an awkward switch. Against conventional coverage, Lendeborg can roll through the middle, establish deep position and punish a smaller defender. His ability to finish inside gives Golden State an alternative to settling for another contested jumper. The most revealing numbers over the coming weeks might not involve points. Watch his offensive rebounds, screen assists and turnovers. Those details will show whether Lendeborg can sustain meaningful responsibility when opponents begin treating him as a primary threat. Podziemski and Lendeborg no longer have the luxury of developing quietly behind Curry. The Warriors need them to solve problems that usually disappear when No. 30 checks back into the game.
3. Jimmy Butler’s Clipboard Joke Exposes a Depleted Warriors Rotation
“PASS TO STEPH.” Jimmy Butler scrawled those three words on a clipboard during the New Orleans blowout, dressed like a member of Kerr’s coaching staff. It was the perfect joke for a team winning by 51 points. Why complicate the assignment when basketball’s greatest shooter occupies the floor? Four days later, both stars face Friday’s game against San Antonio from the wrong side of the injury report. Butler remains out while recovering from his right ACL injury. Moses Moody continues his rehabilitation from a left patellar tendon injury. Brandon Williams, who hurt his left hamstring against New Orleans, will miss Friday’s game after an MRI revealed a mild strain. Golden State plans to reassess Williams after one week, putting his earliest medical checkpoint on November 17.
Kristaps Porzingis remains out indefinitely because of an undisclosed health-related matter. The Warriors have not established a return timetable, and their October 21 statement indicated that they did not expect him around the team in the immediate future. His absence removes a potential starting center who could protect the rim and stretch opposing big men away from it. Of those missing players beyond Curry and Butler, Williams creates the most immediate ball-handling problem. He averaged 10.4 points in roughly 16 minutes per game before his injury. In the two games Curry missed earlier this season, Williams scored 17 and 20 points. Golden State suddenly needs the exact type of downhill creation he supplied. Porzingis leaves the larger structural hole. A healthy 7-foot-2 center with shooting range could pull a rim protector away from Lendeborg’s driving lanes. Instead, Kerr must improvise with his remaining big men while asking a depleted guard rotation to manufacture advantages.
Houston offered a glimpse of how that rotation might function. LJ Cryer scored 13 points in fewer than 18 minutes. De’Anthony Melton added 11, and Will Richard finished with nine despite dealing with a torn ligament in his left thumb. Cryer can threaten defenses with his pull-up jumper around Green’s high-post split actions. When two guards screen for one another, he needs to make the defender pay for ducking underneath. Richard can occupy the weak-side corner, lift toward the wing when Green drives the action and give the ball handler a clean passing angle. Melton offers a different kind of security. His point-of-attack defense can make life miserable for opposing guards, while his secondary pick-and-roll handling gives Kerr another option when Podziemski rests. Pairing him with Cryer could help the Warriors retain shooting without surrendering control of the ball. Don’t ask Cryer or Melton to play hero-ball. Demand disciplined defense, decisive passing and catch-and-shoot spacing instead. Golden State’s bench no longer exists to buy Curry a few minutes of rest. For the next several weeks, those players must help win games that he cannot finish for them.
4. A Brutal Six-Game Stretch Will Test Golden State’s Defense and Depth
The Rockets provided a useful preview of life without Curry in the fourth quarter. Georges Niang and Melton hit three-pointers to bring Golden State within 88-85 with approximately ten minutes remaining. Houston answered with eight straight points. Amen Thompson finished an alley-oop before Reed Sheppard buried consecutive threes, pushing the Rockets ahead 96-85. That sequence explains why Golden State’s defense now carries greater responsibility. Curry can erase six points with two shots. Without him, a sloppy defensive possession can begin a deficit that takes half a quarter to repair. San Antonio offers an even less forgiving examination. The Spurs enter Friday’s NBA Cup matchup at 10-2 after ten consecutive victories. Victor Wembanyama averaged 32.6 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.5 blocks during that streak. Trying to challenge Wembanyama repeatedly at the rim without forcing him away from the basket would amount to basketball malpractice. Golden State should use pick-and-pop actions with Al Horford, then send Lendeborg cutting behind the defense as Wembanyama adjusts his positioning. Green’s ability to find those cuts will matter far more than the sheer number of threes the Warriors attempt.
The schedule offers little room for recovery. After San Antonio, the Warriors visit New Orleans, Dallas and Memphis before returning home to face Boston and Sacramento. Those six games fall within Curry’s initial two-week evaluation window. ESPN also expects him to miss the November 27 meeting with Portland, which would extend his absence to at least seven games. Each opponent presents a different tactical problem. Dallas can squeeze driving lanes with its frontcourt size, putting pressure on Golden State’s guards to score from the middle of the floor. Memphis can accelerate the game through aggressive ball pressure and transition attacks, making careless turnovers particularly costly. Boston presents a different headache. Its perimeter size and switching personnel can suffocate dribble handoffs, especially when Golden State lacks Curry’s ability to punish a defender for going underneath. The Warriors will need sharper screening angles, well-timed slips and quick reversals rather than repeatedly running the same action into a prepared defense.
The solution starts with defensive rebounding. Finish possessions, release the guards early and let Podziemski attack before the opposing defense establishes its shell. Golden State cannot spend 24 seconds manufacturing every decent shot. Forget another eight-game tear. Kerr needs a 3-3 record over this six-game stretch, which would leave the Warriors at 11-7 around Curry’s re-evaluation. Anything near .500 during a longer absence would help preserve the ground Golden State reclaimed after its miserable start. The Western Conference offers no sympathy for an injury report. A couple of ugly weeks can put a playoff hopeful into a Play-In trench war before Christmas.
5. Steve Kerr Cannot Let the Standings Dictate Curry’s Return
November 26 will attract plenty of attention around Golden State. Medical staff will reassess Curry’s oblique, and fans will immediately search for a return date. The danger comes when encouraging medical news turns into pressure to play. Golden State has already lived through a version of that mistake in public expectations. During the 2025 Western Conference semifinals against Minnesota, Curry injured his left hamstring. He eventually progressed to shooting drills and light court work, but he missed four consecutive games before the Timberwolves eliminated the Warriors.
The distinction between participating in rehabilitation and playing NBA basketball matters. Curry does not simply stand in the corner and wait for passes. He sprints through traffic, absorbs contact around screens, twists into off-balance releases and stops abruptly before accelerating again. His offensive brilliance demands constant movement. A premature comeback would place those demands on a recovering muscle before the organization knows how comfortably Curry can handle them. For a player in his 18th NBA season, the consequences could stretch well beyond an extra week of missed basketball. This is where Golden State must resist its own competitive instincts. The Warriors have spent years trying to extract every remaining championship opportunity from Curry’s career. That urgency makes sense. Turning a November standings problem into a recurring injury problem does not.
The NBA has an unhealthy habit of treating availability as proof of toughness. Curry owes the Warriors nothing of that sort. His willingness to return early would not make an injured abdominal muscle heal faster, and one regular-season win cannot justify compromising the rest of his year. Kerr should build his rotation around the possibility of a December return and welcome any earlier clearance as a bonus. Until medical staff determine that Curry can tolerate full basketball activity, Golden State needs to keep that decision separate from its win-loss record. The Warriors have months to repair a difficult November. They cannot manufacture another Stephen Curry.
Golden State’s Revival Must Become Bigger Than Stephen Curry
Houston left the Warriors with a defeat, an injured superstar and a question that reaches deeper than their next six games. Can a roster built around Curry’s brilliance develop a dependable offensive identity when that brilliance disappears? There are reasons to believe it can. Lendeborg has already produced against strong competition. Podziemski has shown the nerve to attack when possessions tighten. Green still understands the geometry of an NBA defense better than most players half his mileage. Those qualities give Kerr real pieces to work with.
Now comes the difficult part: making those pieces fit without the extraordinary shooter who usually makes everything easier. The eight-game streak suggested Golden State had rediscovered something worth protecting. The next month may reveal exactly how much of it belongs to the rest of the roster. For years, Curry has turned broken possessions into points and fragile Warriors seasons into championship possibilities. This time, Golden State must find a way to carry him. It can start by refusing to make him hurry back.
READ ALSO: Warriors Eight-Game Winning Streak: Curry’s Historic Turn
FAQs
What injury did Stephen Curry suffer against Houston?
Stephen Curry suffered an oblique abdominal tear during Golden State’s November 11, 2026 game against the Houston Rockets. An MRI confirmed the injury.
How long will Stephen Curry be out?
Curry will miss at least two weeks. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Warriors are preparing for an absence closer to one month.
When will Stephen Curry return to the Warriors?
Golden State will re-evaluate Curry around November 26. The team has not confirmed a return date, and his recovery could extend into December.
How many games will Stephen Curry miss?
Curry will miss at least six games before his re-evaluation. ESPN expects him to miss the November 27 matchup against Portland as well.
Who will replace Stephen Curry in the Warriors’ offense?
Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg and Draymond Green will carry greater offensive responsibilities. De’Anthony Melton and LJ Cryer can provide additional ball-handling and perimeter scoring.
