The Houston Rockets’ quest to move up in the Western Conference standings is likely to encounter an undesirable hurdle Sunday night when Stephen Curry is expected to return to the Golden State Warriors’ lineup for the nationally televised contest in San Francisco.
The Rockets (48-29) enter the final eight days of the regular season in fifth place in the West, but with the possibility of passing the third-place Los Angeles Lakers and/or the fourth-place Denver Nuggets over the final five games.
Moving into fourth is critical in that it provides a home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The Warriors (36-41) are likely to land 10th in the West, meaning they would have to win consecutive play-in games to earn the eighth and final playoff spot. The No. 8 team will open the playoffs against the top seed, which at this point would be Oklahoma City.
Having lost three in a row, Golden State would love to get that far. And even more importantly, the Warriors would love to fly to Oklahoma City with a relatively healthy roster, one that includes Curry, who has missed the last 27 games with a right knee injury.
The veteran has been cleared to return for the Warriors’ generally meaningless final five games, whose main purpose figures to be keeping Kristaps Porzingis healthy, getting Curry back up to speed and seeing Al Horford return from a strained right soleus that will cause him to miss a 12th straight game Sunday.
In the first of the five play-in ramp-ups, all eyes will be on Curry.
“He’ll be listed as questionable, but is expected to play,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr announced Saturday. “It’ll be nice to have him back.”
Curry played just one of the earlier two head-to-heads with the Rockets this season, scoring 14 points. The Warriors have been able to play Houston on relatively even terms, losing 104-100 at home in November before surprising the Rockets without Curry and Jimmy Butler III in a 115-113 overtime win in Houston last month.
The Rockets were in a 4-6 slump at the time, but have since won seven of nine, including the last five in a row.
A visit to San Francisco means a reunion for Rockets star Kevin Durant, who won two championships in three seasons with the Warriors from 2016-19.
The 37-year-old has returned to the San Francisco Bay Area five times since leaving, going 1-0 with the Brooklyn Nets and 2-2 with the Phoenix Suns.
He has never visited as a member of the Rockets. His only time facing Golden State in his first season with Houston came in the home loss in March, in which he had 23 points.
Durant has shot 52.6% and averaged 23.2 points during Houston’s winning streak, but assures he’s not the only Rocket who’s gotten hot.
“We started knocking more shots down,” he told reporters after Friday’s 140-106 win over Utah when asked about the key to the team’s recent success. “That’s really the only reason we’ve been inconsistent compared to people’s expectations. Once we start knocking them down, you see what type of team we are.”
