Nine-time Golden State Warriors All-Star point guard Stephen Curry has been on the shelf for a week with an ankle injury. In that time span, Golden State has gone 1-2, including a 112-102 defeat to the lowly San Antonio Spurs (14-52). According to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, Curry took in a team practice with Golden State’s NBA G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors.

Slater adds that he is set to take in a team practice with Golden State proper today, before the club makes a determination on his availability for a Saturday matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers. At 34-31, Golden State can ill afford to lose any further ground in the Western Conference. The Lakers, in fact, are currently the West’s ninth seed with a 36-31 record, so this matchup could have major ramifications for playoff tiebreakers and play-in tournament bracket seeding.

Curry has enjoyed another superlative All-NBA season this year. Across 59 games thus far, he’s averaging 26.9 points on .449/.407/.920 shooting splits, 4.9 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 0.8 steals per bout. He may not be quite at the same level of his 2014-19 iteration, but he remains the league’s most lethal volume shooter.

After the Warriors finished with a 44-38 record last season and lost in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs to the Lakers in a six-game series, optimistic pundits expected the club to capitalize on some of its tactical roster tweaks (highlighted by the Warriors’ swap of Jordan Poole but an old-but-still-better-than-Jordan Poole Chris Paul). Instead, the team has hovered around a .500 record all year. It’s been an underwhelming 2023-24 for a rapidly aging Golden State club.

Outside of Curry, veteran wings Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins have taken a major step backwards this year. Draymond Green has had trouble staying out of his own way, but when he can harness his intensity into his effort on the hardwood, he remains pretty effective. Can Golden State survive if Curry is unable to play for an even more extended duration? That remains to be seen.

In his absence, the Warriors have been starting Paul. The 12-time All-Star has been averaging a fairly efficient 12.7 points on a 42.5% shooting from the field (36.4% from the three point line), but has uncharacteristically not taken a single free throw attempt across the three contests. He’s also averaging seven dimes, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.3 steals a night. He’s not the speed demon superstar who ran roughshod over the competition while with the New Orleans Hornets and the Los Angeles Clippers (or even remained a tactical floor general near the end of his extended prime with the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns), but he’s stil a valuable asset.