SAN FRANCISCO -- The Golden State Warriors are expected to be without Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green for their Friday night home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, sources told ESPN. Green is resting and Curry tweaked his left ankle late in the team's Wednesday afternoon win in Charlotte. Butler wasn't initially listed on the injury report, but popped up on Friday with an illness.
But 2026? Oh, 2026 is special. It's a calendar year stuffed with so much narrative weight it's threatening to create a new fault line. It's the year of last chances and new eras. And star power: Boy, do we have it. Here is what you, the beleaguered, overcharged Bay Area sports fan, have to look forward to. The winter of our discontent The 49ers' annual January ulcer The 49ers are in the playoffs.
Golden State has a top 3 defense this season, and it is once again due to the defensive brilliance of Draymond Green, as well as just an overall well-designed defensive scheme. Jimmy Butler and Green are the focal points of Golden State's defense, but even the subpar defenders on the Warriors make up for their faults by being good team defenders, meaning they know what space to fill and when, and they know how to quickly get out of unfavorable defensive matchups.
The worst aspects of a wretched stretch of Warriors play were on full display in Phoenix on Thursday night. The turnovers, the stagnant possessions, the missed boxouts and slow defensive rotations: the usual suspects of the Warriors' losing skid were accounted for in the second half. And yet, somehow, thanks to more Dillon Brooks shenanigan's and clutch Curry and Butler shotmaking, the Warriors got to lose an 99-98 heartbreaker instead of being blown out for the team's third consecutive loss.
Perhaps Steve Kerr is trying to manifest a reality that doesn't exist. Because if the Warriors coach has said it once this season, he's said it a dozen times: He believes this group can be a top-tier defensive unit. He says it with conviction. He says it like it's a foregone conclusion, just waiting for the rest of us to catch up. I'm not buying what he's selling. And honestly, neither should you.
The Golden State Warriors have been waiting for this moment for half a decade, if not longer: Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are heading for a divorce. He is likely to be traded in the coming weeks or, at the very latest, this upcoming offseason. Folks, it's on. And the Dubs can't get him. Unless the Greek Freak proclaims that he wants to play for the Warriors and only the Warriors a demand that has not been made and isn't expected Golden State will have to watch its (okay, Joe Lacob's) dream of pairing Steph Curry with Giannis drift away.
Melton suffered a partially torn ACL early last season after a misstep against the Dallas Mavericks on Dec. 11. He said he knew something was wrong at halftime of the game, but he played through it. After tests revealed the partial tear, Melton spent several weeks consulting with doctors before ultimately deciding on season-ending surgery. He had the procedure on Dec. 4, 2024. His season debut on Thursday night will be exactly one year after the surgery.
The Warriors with Stephen Curry have hardly put the fear into the eyes of NBA defenses this season. Without the him, they have been the league's least-threatening offensive group and did little to shirk that reputation Saturday against the Western Conference's lowliest team. It required nearly every possession of regulation, but the Warriors made just enough shots to pull out a 104-96 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
SAN FRANCISCO Kevon Looney had navigated Chase Center's winding halls hundreds of times during his 11-year career. But Saturday afternoon's trek through the glitzy San Francisco arena was his first as a visiting player, an unfamiliar experience for the former Warrior still adored by the organization and its fans. I thought I knew the Chase Center like the back of my hand, Looney, now a member of the Pelicans, said.
A mobile 7-footer who can bomb threes and attack off the dribble while getting to the free throw line at an elite rate, he is the kind of frontcourt player NBA teams have coveted ever since the Curry-and-Kerr Warriors revolutionized the NBA almost a decade ago. Now, the shorthanded Warriors will have to deal with a blossoming superstar they reportedly were close to trading for a year ago.
