SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With a little more than nine minutes left in the first quarter of Friday’s 124-118 loss to the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr felt the same concern that every single one of his team’s fans had as they watched Stephen Curry slide on a wet spot on the floor.
The 38-year-old star guard, playing in his third game since missing over two months because of a runner’s knee injury, came up hobbling and appeared to be in pain.
Kerr called a timeout to give the Warriors’ franchise player a few moments to collect himself as the entire organization held its collective breath while Curry spoke to Warriors VP of player health and performance Rick Celebrini on the bench. Curry returned to the game and the potential injury crisis turned into just a minor scare.
“He’s doing fine,” Kerr said after the game. “It was his ankle, it wasn’t his knee. That’s why I took the timeout. I was worried it was his knee. I just saw him limping and he came over and said, ‘No, I’m fine. It’s just the ankle.’ He just tweaked it or something but he’s fine.”
Curry finished with just 11 points in 27 minutes, going 3-for-8 from the field. He looked uneasy on the ankle through the rest of the first half, but found a little more rhythm in the second half before departing for good. The Warriors, who have been locked in the 10th spot in the Western Conference for a little while, looked like they were just going through the motions against the tanking Kings.
Still, there was a little excitement down the stretch.
Brandin Podziemski knew exactly how much was riding on his last free throw. The 23-year-old Warriors guard knew his team was on the verge of another loss. He understood that his two free throws, with 4.5 seconds left, wouldn’t make a difference in the final outcome — but after missing the first shot, he couldn’t help but smile at the rest of his teammates as they looked on from the bench.
That’s because they knew he was one point away from finally reaching a career high of 30 points, a mark that had eluded him in every game of his three NBA seasons leading up to Friday night. So as he went through his normal routine before the last free throw of the night, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a brief moment to collect himself. He knew the shot would be a lot more memorable than the final score.
“Everybody did,” Podziemski said when asked if he knew his point total. “As soon as I missed the first one, everybody on the bench looked at me and that’s why I smiled a little bit. But yeah, they’ve just been giving me a hard time about it the whole year.”
How hard a time?
Curry said he told Podziemski that whenever he reached the milestone, he is going to have the young guard hold a sign with “30” on it, just like older players have done when they have had huge scoring nights in the past.
“I told him we were gonna treat him like Devin Booker when he scored 70 in Boston and they lost,” Curry said with a grin. “We’ll give him the sign and all that. I know he’s been searching for it. Everybody knew it too, so it was fun to see him get it, and the way he got it.”
Aside from the personal pride Podziemski felt after finally reaching the elusive mark, his achievement also set off a torrent of support on X after the game was over. That’s because X user @currysnotafraud has garnered online attention since tweeting on Nov. 25, 2024, that it would not tweet again until Podziemski scored 30 points.
On Friday night, the wish came true — but what made the shot even more impressive was that if Podziemski had missed the second free throw, he also would have earned free pizza for the Sacramento crowd as part of a promotion around players missing two free throws. Podziemski wore a look of relief as he smiled at the postgame podium.
“It would have been bad on both ends,” Podziemski said. “Pizza and the account can be activated now.”
True to their word, @currysnotafraud immediately posted a series of tweets after Podziemski’s performance, including a clip of a man appearing to be in a hospital bed, waking up with an oxygen mask over his face. As of early Saturday morning, the tweet had already been liked 130,000 times.
As Podziemski and the Warriors celebrated his career night, he was also grateful for the fact that Sunday’s regular-season finale against the LA Clippers will mark his 82nd game of the season. Being able to play in every single regular-season game means “a lot” to Podziemski.
“I’ve had good vets,” Podziemski said. “(Kevon Looney) and Buddy (Hield), who have done it before me. But I think after my injuries, I’ve found a flow on the days in between or back-to-backs that have allowed me to be ready and to be healthy.
“Through my injuries, I learned a lot about my body and how it works. And by doing that, I’m able to prevent injuries before they occur. And so, knock on wood, God-willing, be able to play one more game. It will be a gratifying 82.”
Meanwhile, Curry kept his ankle in an ice bucket for a while after the game and got some more treatment from the training staff in the locker room, but he believes he’ll be fine for Sunday’s regular-season finale against the LA Clippers.
“I’ll be all right,” Curry said. “As long as it’s not my knee; I can deal with ankles. I’ve been dealing with that forever. That was the interesting part; my knee felt pretty good, even better than last game, so I’ll take that as a positive.”
Kerr said the plan is for Curry to play on Sunday to continue finding his own rhythm. Kerr believes that as long as Curry is healthy, it will be good to continue to get reps as the Warriors prepare to face the Clippers again on Wednesday in the 9/10 Play-In game after the Clippers lost to the now No. 8 Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. If the Blazers beat the Kings on Sunday, they will clinch the No. 8 seed.
Curry said he was hoping to play his “normal minutes” of 30-32 on Sunday to get himself prepared for Wednesday’s Play-In game. He’s hopeful Kerr and Celebrini will be open to his playing the normal minutes on Wednesday as well — and maybe a couple extra if needed in the win-or-go-home setting.
“I’ll be comfortable with it,” he said. “I find it hard to believe that if the game calls for a couple extra minutes that we won’t make the right decision there.”
