Is Steph Curry Playing Tonight? Curry Injury Update and Return Timeline

If you were hoping to see Steph Curry against Victor Wembanyama on Friday night, you're out of luck. Curry is not playing tonight, and he won't play for a while. The Warriors star tore his right oblique in Houston on Wednesday, and the team has ruled him out until a re-evaluation in two weeks.

Friday's NBA Cup game in San Antonio was the first of those missed games. Curry wasn't even in the building. He caught a flight back to San Francisco before the FAA's nationwide ground stop hit, Sports Illustrated reported, and began rehab with Rick Celebrini, the team's director of sports medicine and performance.

Steph Curry injury update: what the Warriors said

The team's statement on Thursday, Nov. 12, was short. Curry had an MRI the night he got hurt, it confirmed an oblique abdominal tear, and he will be re-evaluated in two weeks. That puts the next formal update around Thursday, Nov. 26, which is Thanksgiving.

The Warriors did not give a return date, and a re-evaluation isn't one. It's a checkpoint. ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Golden State is bracing for Curry to be out closer to a month, which would mean a return somewhere around mid-December if nothing goes wrong.

How it happened

It came on fast. Curry started grabbing at his right side a few minutes into Wednesday's game at Toyota Center and kept playing, glancing at the training staff, ESPN's Anthony Slater wrote. With 7:22 left in the first quarter he came off a Draymond Green screen, hit a 28-footer and yelled as he let it go. He signaled to the bench and left with 6:25 remaining.

He played six minutes. The 3-pointer was his only basket.

"He said he tweaked something in his abdominal area and said he's never done it before," coach Steve Kerr said afterward, per the Associated Press. Kerr also said, before the MRI came back, that "concern is high."

Why oblique injuries are tricky

The oblique muscles run along the side of the torso, and shooters lean on them for nearly every rotation and jump. The AP noted that this kind of injury sometimes takes longer than the first timeline suggests, which is why the two-week figure should be read as a floor. We'd wait for the team's update before betting on any date.

Steph Curry return date: the games he'll miss

Curry will sit out at least the next seven games, according to ESPN:

The Cup angle matters. Golden State, San Antonio, the Lakers, Portland and Sacramento make up West Group C, CBS Sports noted, and the Warriors started 1-0 in group play after beating the Lakers on Oct. 30. We covered that one in our recap of Curry's comeback in the Warriors' 112-95 win over the Lakers. Losing Curry for most of the remaining group games makes the knockout round harder to reach.

Why this one stings for Golden State

He was playing like an MVP candidate again

At 38, in his 18th season, Curry had been one of the best scorers in the league. Through 10 games he was averaging 27.8 points in 26.3 minutes, shooting 50% from the field and a career-best 45.7% from three, per the team and ESPN. The Warriors won eight straight before the Houston loss, their longest streak since the 2022 title season.

The roster was already thin

Curry is the fifth notable name missing. Jimmy Butler III (ACL repair) and Moses Moody (patellar tendon repair) are out long-term, Kristaps Porzingis has stepped away from the team, and backup guard Brandon Williams has a strained hamstring, according to ESPN. That's a lot of shot creation gone at once.

Last season's warning sign

Golden State went 13-26 in the 39 games Curry missed in 2025-26. That number is the reason fans started searching "is Steph Curry playing tonight" the moment he left the floor in Houston.

How the Warriors plan to survive without Curry

Draymond Green insists this group is different. "We're more certain of who we are, what makes us a good team," he said after the Rockets game, per CBS Sports. The numbers back him up a little: the Warriors have outscored opponents by 2.3 points per 100 possessions in the 318 minutes Curry has sat this season, the team's game notes say.

For Friday, NBC Sports reported the starting five as Brandin Podziemski, Will Richard, De'Anthony Melton, Yaxel Lendeborg and Green, with Green moving to center and Richard replacing Al Horford. Melton took Curry's spot.

Watch Lendeborg. The rookie posted 25 points and 10 rebounds in Houston, and Kerr has been openly enthusiastic about him. "We can't rely, obviously, on Steph's shot-making tonight, so we've got to rely on our execution," Kerr said before tipoff in San Antonio.

The opponent didn't help. The Spurs came in on a 10-game winning streak, the best in the league, with Wembanyama averaging 32.6 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.5 blocks during the run, per the Warriors' preview.

What to watch next

• The injury report before each game. Curry should be listed as out through at least late November. Any change would come from the team.
• The Nov. 26 checkpoint. If the scan looks good, the Warriors may give a fresh timeline. If not, ESPN's month-long estimate becomes the working number.
• The Cup standings. A couple of wins without Curry would keep Golden State's knockout hopes alive.

Curry has come back from worse. But two weeks is the earliest anyone will know more, and the Warriors know from last season how fast a stretch without him can slip away. Elsewhere in the NBA, the Pacers are managing Tyrese Haliburton's hamstring injury and the Thunder are without Jalen Williams after a fractured fibula.

This article reports on an athlete's injury using team statements and news reports. It is not medical advice.