Stephen Curry Has an Oblique Tear and Will Be Re-Evaluated in Two Weeks After Leaving Loss at Houston

By The Arena Staff

Updated 4:00 p.m. ET Thursday, Nov. 12 — Now the Warriors have their answer. An MRI confirmed that Stephen Curry has an oblique abdominal tear, the team announced Thursday, and he will be re-evaluated in two weeks. That makes the re-evaluation the earliest possible checkpoint, not a return date, and sources told ESPN's Shams Charania that Golden State is bracing for Curry to be out closer to a month.

Either way, the next seven games are gone. ESPN lists them as Friday at San Antonio, then New Orleans, Dallas, Memphis, Boston, Sacramento and Portland. Curry is averaging 27.8 points in 26.3 minutes a game, according to ESPN, and he'd been the engine of an eight-game winning streak that ended the night he got hurt. CBS Sports noted that recent NBA oblique strains have cost players anywhere from about 10 days to five weeks, though it's not yet clear how severe Curry's tear is.

HOUSTON, Nov. 12, 2026 — Stephen Curry has carried the Golden State Warriors through the best stretch of their season. On Wednesday night in Houston, he lasted about five minutes, and by the second half he had left the building for an MRI.

Curry exited the Warriors' 115-108 loss to the Rockets in the first quarter with what the team called right abdominal soreness, and Steve Kerr didn't pretend to be calm about it afterward. "Concern is high," Kerr said, according to ESPN. "But I have no idea the extent."

Curry started grabbing at his right side a few minutes into the game, ESPN reported. With 7:22 left in the first quarter he came off a Draymond Green screen and hit a 28-foot 3-pointer, then yelled in pain after the release and signaled toward the bench. A couple of possessions later, after a short talk with Kerr, he walked to the locker room. The Warriors ruled him out early in the second quarter.

"He just said he tweaked something in his abdominal area, and says he's never done it before, and he went to get an MRI tonight, so we haven't heard anything about the results," Kerr said, per NBC Sports Bay Area.

The timing is brutal. The 3-pointer he made before leaving stretched his streak of games with a 3 to 102, according to Warriors.com. ESPN reported that he spoke to his teammates at halftime, told them to focus on the game and assured them he'd get through this one fine. The Warriors are already without Jimmy Butler III and Moses Moody, who are rehabbing knee injuries, and Brandon Williams is out at least a week with a strained hamstring.

Without Curry, the Warriors fell behind by as many as 18, tied it late in the second quarter and got within three in the third, but never got over the top. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg led all scorers with 25 points and 10 rebounds, 13 of those points coming in the second quarter after Curry left, and Brandin Podziemski added 22. The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak, Golden State's longest since its 2022 title season, and dropped the Warriors to 8-4.

Houston got 20 points from Kevin Durant, 19 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists from Alperen Sengun, and 19 from Amen Thompson, with all five starters in double figures.

The night also had a flash of ugly. With 21 seconds left in the third quarter, Rockets guard Marcus Smart was hit with a flagrant 2 foul and ejected for throwing a punch at Warriors center Charles Bassey after the two got tangled up under the basket, NBC Sports Bay Area reported. Bassey didn't retaliate. Afterward he called it "fake toughness," Yahoo Sports reported. Later Thursday the NBA suspended Smart three games without pay for a punch that made contact with Bassey's face, starting with Houston's home game against Utah on Friday, according to the league's announcement on NBA.com and the AP.

Draymond Green said this group is in a better position to survive without Curry than last season's team, which went 13-26 in the games he missed, according to ESPN. "The spirit of this team is better," Green said. They'll find out quickly. Golden State plays at San Antonio, winners of 10 straight, on Friday night.

Sourcing: ESPN, NBA.com and AP, CBS Sports, NBC Sports Bay Area and Warriors.com.