HOUSTON – The Warriors found enough scoring to survive much of the night without Stephen Curry. They could not find an answer when Houston finally pulled away, and the question left after their winning streak ended was bigger than the loss.
Curry left Wednesday’s game in the first quarter with right abdominal soreness and did not return. The Rockets won 115–108, ending Golden State’s eight-game streak, while coach Steve Kerr said his star guard had left the arena during the second half for an MRI.
Golden State had cut Houston’s lead to 96–91 with 7:10 remaining. The Rockets answered with a 15–2 run, turning a game the short-handed Warriors had kept alive into one they could no longer realistically recover. Houston improved to 9–3; Golden State dropped to 8–4.
Kerr told NBC Sports Bay Area’s postgame coverage that Curry had described tweaking his abdominal area and said he had not experienced it before. Kerr said “concern is high,” but immediately qualified that concern: “I have no idea the extent of the injury.”
No MRI results were available when Kerr spoke. The reports reviewed for this article did not provide a return timetable. Right abdominal soreness was the team’s stated reason for ruling Curry out; it should not be converted into a confirmed muscle tear, a fixed absence or a forecast about the remainder of the road trip.
Curry played 5:35 and scored three points. He made his only basket, a three-pointer, with 7:22 left in the first quarter, then left with 6:25 remaining and the Warriors trailing 19–10. That early exit removed a player who had entered the night averaging 30.6 points, shortly after his 41-point overtime performance against Orlando.
The Rockets did not need one scorer to reproduce that kind of output. Kevin Durant led Houston with 20 points, Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson added 19 each, and Fred VanVleet scored 18. The four starters combined for 76 points, with each presenting Golden State a different problem to solve.
Sengun was one assist short of a triple-double, adding 13 rebounds and nine assists to his scoring. Thompson made eight of 11 shots and contributed seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks. VanVleet hit four of seven three-pointers, recorded six assists and three steals, and committed no turnovers.
The NBA’s official box score shows why Houston’s balance mattered more than the Warriors’ extra three-pointers. Golden State made 17 threes to Houston’s 13 and five more free throws. Those two categories gave the visitors a combined 17-point advantage.
Houston reversed that difference on two-point baskets. Subtracting three-pointers from total field goals leaves the Rockets with 31 two-point makes and the Warriors with 19. That 24-point edge outweighed Golden State’s advantages elsewhere and produced the final seven-point margin. These are calculations from the final box score, not a claim that every two-pointer came at the rim.
The Rockets shot 50.6% overall, compared with Golden State’s 40.9%. They also had 26 assists and 11 turnovers. Durant’s five assists and Sengun’s nine helped distribute the work rather than leave Houston dependent on a single late-game scorer.
For the Warriors, rookie Yaxel Lendeborg supplied the clearest response to Curry’s departure. He finished with a game-high 25 points, 10 rebounds and two steals, shooting nine of 19. Brandin Podziemski added 22 points, six rebounds and four assists, including four three-pointers. Together they scored 47 of Golden State’s 108 points.
NBC Sports Bay Area’s game analysis credited Lendeborg with giving the offense life after Curry went out. His first-half scoring reached 18, and his willingness to attack kept the Warriors from losing contact before the fourth quarter.
The support around those two scorers was less consistent. Al Horford made one of seven shots in his first start of the season, while Georges Niang also finished one of seven. Gui Santos went scoreless and committed four turnovers in 12 minutes. De’Anthony Melton scored 11, and LJ Cryer contributed 13 off the bench.
Golden State’s reserves finished with 49 points, but that final total overstates how much they contributed while the result remained in doubt. NBC’s account recorded 34 bench points on 10-for-30 shooting before a late scoring burst in the final minutes. The distinction matters in a game whose seven-point finish looks closer than Houston’s decisive fourth-quarter run.
The Warriors were already missing several players, including Jimmy Butler III, Moses Moody, Gary Payton II and Brandon Williams; Kristaps Porzingis was not with the team, NBC reported. Curry’s departure extended that list rather than creating a completely new problem for the bench.
Houston’s win deserves to stand apart from that injury context. The Rockets still had to stop a Golden State rally and did so with a sustained scoring response. For the Warriors, the streak is settled. Curry’s condition was not: when Kerr left his postgame interview, he was still waiting to learn what the MRI showed.
