Stephen Curry is set to make his return from a shoulder injury Tuesday night as the Golden State Warriors take on the Phoenix Suns, and the superstar guard is expected to be in the starting lineup, per ESPN. Given Curry has missed the last 11 games, there's the potential that Curry could be on a minutes restriction, but that has yet to be decided. Curry has been out of the lineup since Dec. 14 after suffering a subluxation of his left shoulder against the Indiana Pacers.
The team initially hoped that he would return by this weekend, but after going through two practices, he is seemingly ready to take the floor again on Tuesday.
Prior to the injury, Curry was having one of the best seasons of his career. He is averaging 30 points per game for the third time in his career and is currently on pace for his second 50-40-90 shooting season. Curry was considered among the top MVP candidates, but Golden State's struggles as a team would have made it difficult for him to win the award.
Fortunately, Golden State has seemingly figured things out in Curry's absence. The Warriors are 6-5 since their best player went down. Jonathan Kuminga and Donte DiVincenzo have emerged as key role players, and Klay Thompson has looked like his old All-Star self by averaging 26 points per game since Curry got hurt.
Those are key developments for a Warriors team whose best units were never in question. Even as they struggled, their starting lineup built around Curry built the best point-differential of any five-man unit in basketball at plus-132. Now that Curry is returning and their bench seems to have settled in, the Warriors should return to being one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA as it attempts to defend its title.
