The Golden State Warriors embark upon the Stephen Curry management portion of their schedule when they take on the Sacramento Kings in San Francisco on Tuesday night to tip off a stretch of four games in six days to close out the regular season.
Curry returned from a two-month absence caused by a sore right knee with a crowd-pleasing performance Sunday against the Houston Rockets, going for 29 points in 26 minutes off the bench in a 117-116 home loss.
The defeat entrenched Golden State (36-42) in 10th place in the West, from where it would have to beat consecutive opponents on the road in the upcoming play-in contests in order to make the eight-team Western Conference playoffs.
While noting that Curry would return to the starting lineup by the time the Warriors enter the must-win games next week, Golden State coach Steve Kerr indicated after the Sunday loss that the next four contests would serve as opportunities to find the most compatible combinations, especially with Kristaps Porzingis a relative newcomer to the team as well.
“We wanted to get Draymond (Green) and Steph together for obvious reasons, so we changed some of the other rotations to fit Steph,” Kerr said of adjustments he had to make by not starting his star point guard against the Rockets. “Obviously this won’t last for long. He’ll be in the starting lineup soon. I’m not sure when just based on minutes.”
Playing four games in six days will factor into how much guys such as Curry, Green and Porzingis play this week, as well as the best possible time for Al Horford to return from a soleus injury. The Warriors have a back-to-back Thursday at home against the Los Angeles Lakers and Friday at Sacramento.
Despite missing a potential game-winning 30-footer at the final horn, Curry felt great about the overall outcome of his first night back.
“That group that we had down the stretch, it felt like old times,” Curry said after the game. “Just reading the defense, the overreact to me on the perimeter, (Gary Payton II) going to the bucket, Draymond’s finding guys. … It was awesome.”
The Kings (21-58) enter the final week of the season tied with Utah Jazz for the fourth-worst record in the NBA. The three teams with the fewest wins will arrive at the draft lottery with the best odds of landing the first pick.
Sacramento has four more wins than the Washington Wizards, three more than the Indiana Pacers and two more than the Brooklyn Nets.
Other than the two meetings with Golden State, the Kings will play at Portland on Sunday to complete the regular season.
Sacramento hurt its odds by winning twice last week — 123-115 at Toronto on Wednesday and 117-113 at home against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday. The Kings were thumped 138-109 by the visiting Los Angeles Clippers in their most recent game on Sunday.
One thing left for the Kings to achieve would be helping center Maxime Raynaud earn NBA All-Rookie first-team honors.
The former Stanford star was voted the Western Conference Rookie of the Month for March and has since had a 28-point game against the Pelicans last week.
“He smashed through the ceiling,” Kings coach Doug Christie said. “The kid is ready, and he wants the opportunity to continue to improve. Sometimes you get an opportunity and you’re not ready to seize it, but he has seized the opportunity.”
Raynaud is averaging 12.1 points and 7.5 rebounds and shooting 56.7% from the field in 71 games (53 starts). He has 18 double-doubles.
