Just two months ago the season was on the brink of being over for the Golden State Warriors. At the end of January they sat 11th in the Western Conference standings, were below a .500 record, and looked like wasting another year of whatever near-prime years Stephen Curry has left.
Fast-forward to today and the Warriors are coming off arguably their best win of the season, or at least the loudest when it comes to their claim as a legitimate playoff threat. An impressive 123-116 win over the Los Angeles Lakers has kept them in the fifth-seed in the standings, and now with a stunning but legitimate eye to gaining home-court advantage for the playoffs.
The Warriors are giving Stephen Curry meaningful basketball
While Thursday night's game wasn't a playoff battle, it was the closest thing to it as Curry and LeBron James went head-to-head with huge seeding implications in the second-half. The two all-time greats did their thing in spectacular fashion, with Curry's 37 points shading James' 33 points, and in turn the Warriors held off the Lakers at every turn.
Golden State may still have work to do to make the playoffs, but this was another example of the joy in giving Curry meaningful basketball where his brilliance can come to the fore. Thursday's 37-point performance came after a special 52-point outing with 12 threes in a tight win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday.
All Curry kept saying this season is he wanted to play meaningful basketball. You can feel it here.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 2, 2025
And I absolutely never understood the people who raged months ago that the Warriors were wasting Curry's prime by trying to be meaningful this season. https://t.co/YSx6CwZBMy
It's not that long ago that there were legitimate discussions among fans and analysts on whether the Warriors should close down their season prematurely, give Curry and Draymond Green some significant rest, and let the young players develop as much as possible.
Instead, the franchise went star-chasing as hard as perhaps any team has in the days leading up to a trade deadline. Golden State drew some criticism for their seemingly open desperation for any big name, yet finally got their hands on Jimmy Butler despite the 6x All-Star's previous rejection towards the idea of joining the franchise.
Now, the Warriors are 20-5 since the Butler trade and are 20-2 in games both he and Curry play. For all the different aspects that Butler has provided to Golden State, allowing his star teammate to play high-stakes basketball again may be the most important.
The franchise took that from Curry in finishing as the 10th-seed last season, and the 2x MVP's brilliance at the Paris Olympics further reiterated that Golden State owe it to him to maximize what he has left.
Fortunately the front office and ownership did that with the Butler trade, and now it's time to find out just how far Curry can take this Warriors squad in 2025.