Sometimes, you don't need to be good, you just need to be better than everyone else. That's the strategy the Golden State Warriors will employ over the next month as they balance ensuring Steph Curry is fully healthy when he returns and also making sure not to tumble down the Western Conference standings.
Luckily for the Warriors, they need not worry about the teams surrounding them in the play-in race. As it stands, the Warriors are No. 8 in the West, three games behind the Suns, 2.5 games ahead of the ninth-place Clippers, and three full games clear of the 10th-place Blazers. The Grizzlies sit in 11th place, giving the Warriors a seven-game stiffarm on a non play-in berth.
In other words, the Warriors are in virtually no danger of falling out of the play-in tourney. They also don't appear in any danger of falling behind the Blazers or Clippers, either, as the Blazers are dealing with injuries to Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe, and the Clippers traded away two of their three best players at the deadline for reasons I'm not quite sure of yet.
Losses late in the season never feel good, but Warriors fans can have some comfort knowing the teams "chasing" Golden State are going to look just as bad.
Warriors can afford to be patient with Steph Curry before postseason
Thus, there is no rush at all for Steph Curry to return to the lineup. Of course, fans want to see him playing, but with such little pressure being applied by the teams behind them, the Warriors don't need to hold their breath keeping Curry on the sideline until he's 100% recovered.
On Sunday, the team announced that Curry would miss at least 10 more days, meaning at least five more games. It's not an encouraging injury update for a 37 year-old, but it's not going to derail the Warriors' postseason hopes either. The Warriors not being that good might derail their postseason hopes, but that's a discussion for another day.
If Steph Curry is less than 100% — and that includes being 99% — ready to return, don't take the risk. Fans have gotten so used to Curry being out on the floor that it's easy to forget that producing like this at 37 years old (soon to be 38) is nearly unprecedented. Rushing him back doesn't dramatically change things for the better this year, but it could dramatically change things for the worse in the future.