As Sam Amick and Nick Friedell of The Athletic reported on Tuesday, Steph Curry is targeting a return (subscription required) to the Golden State Warriors' lineup on Sunday when the team hosts the Rockets. He doesn't want to miss an opportunity to play in the postseason to try to make something happen for this team, but even his presence won't be enough to change their fate.
The Warriors currently sit 2.5 games back from the No. 8 Clippers. If they can't claw their way to the eighth seed, they'll have to win two games to advance past the play-in to the first round. With Curry (and a hopefully healthy Kristaps Porziņģis), you can't rule it out, but it feels next-to-impossible to imagine them making it to the second round.
Golden State's award for making it out of the play-in would be a first-round matchup with Oklahoma City. And nothing else needs to be said about that, other than the Thunder are a better team than they were last year when they won a championship.
All hope for the Warriors this season has already been lost
Anytime Curry steps on the floor, it's a must-watch, especially at his age (36). No one knows how many more years the magic will go on, but it's not going to be for too much longer. The Warriors are well aware of that, which is why there will be a lot of pressure on them this offseason.
Speaking of the offseason, it's hard not to look ahead to next season, even with Curry's potential return. The season went south as soon as Jimmy Butler tore his ACL in January, and the truth is that their odds of making it out of the West didn't look all that great even then.
Losing Curry at the end of January to a knee injury that's kept him sidelined until now is only further proof of how disappointing this season has been for Golden State. It's felt like a never-ending string of bad news, but at least he could play again in just a few days, which might be a positive, depending on how you view it.
You know better than at this point, though, to expect his return after missing months to propel the Warriors to anywhere other than an early exit, whether it be in the play-in or the first round. They'd need about five Steph Currys, and maybe two of Porziņġis, to change that.