Stephen Curry's Oblique Tear Halts a 30.6-Point Start for Two Weeks

Photo: NBA.com. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

Stephen Curry has an oblique abdominal tear and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, the Golden State Warriors announced Thursday, one night after he left a 115-108 loss in Houston with 6:25 left in the first quarter. Curry entered that game averaging 30.6 points in 28.6 minutes, second in the NBA in scoring, and the Warriors play six games before the two-week mark.

A re-evaluation is not a return date. It is the first point at which the team will say anything new.

What Golden State loses

The efficiency is what made this start strange for a 38-year-old. Through his first nine games, Curry made 42 of 92 threes, 45.7 percent, and 75 of 76 free throws. He went 8 for 8 from the field in a win at Denver. He scored 44 at Minnesota and 41 in an overtime win over Orlando. He topped 33 minutes only once, in that overtime game.

The Warriors were 0-3 on Oct. 24. Then they won eight straight, their longest streak since the 2022 title season, per NBC Sports Bay Area. Curry played seven of those eight games and averaged 32.6 points in them, by our math from his game log. The one win without him came against the Clippers on Nov. 1.

Wednesday showed how quickly that falls apart. Curry hit a 28-foot three off a Draymond Green screen with 7:22 left in the first quarter, yelled in pain on the release and signaled to the bench, per ESPN. Golden State trailed 19-10 when he left. The Warriors tied it later, then lost by seven. Yaxel Lendeborg scored 25 with 10 rebounds and Brandin Podziemski added 22, and it still was not enough to beat a Houston team that got 20 from Kevin Durant and 19 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists from Alperen Sengun.

The roster behind him is thin

Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody are rehabbing long-term knee injuries, Kristaps Porzingis has stepped away from the team, and Brandon Williams will miss at least a week with a hamstring strain, per ESPN. De'Anthony Melton started the second half in Houston in Curry's place.

Last season the Warriors went 13-26 in the 39 games Curry missed, per ESPN, and finished 37-45. That is the number hanging over the next two weeks. This year's team is 1-1 without him, a sample too small to say much.

The schedule makes it harder. Golden State plays at San Antonio on Friday, at New Orleans on Monday, then at Dallas and at Memphis on back-to-back nights, Nov. 18 and 19. Boston visits Nov. 22 and Sacramento on Nov. 25, the night before the two-week mark. Four of the six are on the road.

Why "tear" is the word that matters

Kerr said after the game that Curry told him it was an injury he had "never done" before. "Concern is high," Kerr said, per CBS Sports, "but I have no idea the extent of the injury." The MRI answered part of that: a tear, not soreness.

Recent oblique cases show how wide the range runs. Austin Reaves and Joel Embiid each missed 25 days with oblique strains in 2026, per CBS Sports. Paolo Banchero missed 34 games in 2024-25 with a torn right oblique. Sports medicine physician Brian Sutterer's data puts the average absence for an oblique or abdominal tear at about five and a half weeks, roughly 19 games, per ClutchPoints. None of that is Curry's timeline. The Warriors have not given one beyond the two-week re-evaluation.

What the injury takes away is specific. Curry's game depends on sprinting off screens, stopping and rotating his torso to shoot from 28 feet. The oblique is the muscle that does that rotation. For a shooter whose release starts with that twist, there is no version of his game that spares it.

What to watch

The first two weeks will show whether Lendeborg and Podziemski can carry an offense or only finish what Curry starts. Lendeborg scored 25 in Houston once Curry was gone. Doing it every night against teams that have film on him is the next test. If Golden State goes .500 through the six games, the 0-3-to-8-4 turn holds up. If it looks like last season's 13-26 without him, the eight-game streak will look like the outlier.

Sources

• Golden State Warriors announcement on X, Nov. 12, 2026
• AP via NBA.com: Stephen Curry leaves game vs. Rockets with abdominal soreness
• ESPN: Stephen Curry hurts abdomen, heads for MRI
• NBC Sports Bay Area: Kerr says concern is high
• Basketball-Reference: Stephen Curry 2026-27 game log
• Basketball-Reference: 2026-27 Warriors schedule and results
• Field Level Media: Rockets top Warriors as Curry exits
• CBS Sports: Curry injury and recent oblique timelines
• ClutchPoints: Sutterer data on abdominal injuries
• RotoWire: Melton started the second half