Stephen Curry and two other Golden State Warriors will be on a minutes restriction when they face the Clippers in Los Angeles on Wednesday, a must-win play-in game that will end the Warriors' season if they lose. Steve Kerr said Sunday that Curry, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford will all play fewer than 40 minutes in the rematch of a regular-season finale the Clippers won 115-110.
The limits are the latest sign of how hard Golden State has had to manage its aging core all season. Curry has been battling knee injuries most of the year, Horford has dealt with a calf injury, and Draymond Green and Porzingis have both been nursing sore backs. The Warriors reached the final of the four play-in berths at 37-45, and they now have no margin for error.
Kerr has been making his frustration with the long schedule plain for weeks. In March, he said the league should shorten the regular season and take 10 games off the schedule, arguing it would make the game more competitive and healthier. The message lands differently now because Golden State is trying to survive with a roster built around veterans who have spent much of the season being protected from themselves.
The Clippers, by contrast, enter with Kawhi Leonard fresher than most stars at this point in the calendar. Leonard rested for the final games of the season in preparation for the play-in after averaging a career-high 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists in a mostly healthy campaign. He played his second-most games as a Clipper during the season, and after being limited to 37 games in 2024-25 because of injuries, the contrast underscores how fragile this stage of the season can be for teams leaning on older stars.
Golden State's hopes now turn on whether Curry can push through one more high-stakes night, one that has already drawn attention around the league. Before the matchup, Darius Garland praised Steph Curry in a preview of the Warriors-Clippers play-in showdown, a reminder of how much of the game's drama still rests on one player with the ball in his hands. The question is no longer whether the Warriors know the risk. It is whether they can survive it.
