Sunday night will be a big night for Golden State Warriors fans. The Dubs' upcoming game against the Los Angeles Lakers will be the return of Stephen Curry from his leg injury he suffered a couple of weeks ago. Steph's return comes at the perfect time, as Golden State is gearing up for one final push up the Western Conference standings.

This isn't Steph Curry's first time returning from an injury, as most Warriors fans know. The Dubs star suffered many injuries throughout his career that sidelined him for a significant amount of time. With that in mind, let's take a look at how the team handled his return on different occasions.

Steph Curry's typical return from injury

Before we start, let's specify the circumstances that we'll be closely examining here. We're only going to take a deep look into Steph Curry's major injuries starting from 2015 (when Steve Kerr was hired). That way, we can get a more accurate read on how the current coaching staff handles his return. We'll also briefly skim over playoff injury returns: those are much different circumstances than a regular-season game.

With that in mind, let's take a look at these outliers first and see how Steph Curry dealt with returns from his injury.

December 25, 2010 – GSW vs. POR

Newer fans may not know this, but Curry was rather injury-prone during his first few seasons in the league. In particular, ankle injuries seemed to plague him often in his rookie and sophomore year. In Year 2, the Warriors star suffered an ankle injury in a game against the San Antonio Spurs. Curry would miss six games before returning for a Christmas Day game against the Portland Trail Blazers.

It was a terrible showing from Curry. In 29 minutes of play, the Warriors star went 2-for-15 (!!!) from the field, and missed all five attempts from deep. He did have 11 assists, but his four points stood out like a sore thumb. Curry was hampered by this injury for the entire season, and would re-injure his ankle in subsequent years.

May 11, 2016 – GSW vs. POR (Conf. Semi-Finals)

After his struggle with ankle injuries, Steph Curry made a concerted effort to avoid reinjuring his ankles again. The Warriors star rigorously strengthened his ankle and adopted new tendencies to avoid rolling his ankle. However, Curry would still suffer the occasional injury, such as the one he got in the 2016 playoffs.

An MCL strain kept Curry out of commission for the start of their Conference Semi-Finals against the Blazers. When he returned in Game 5, the Warriors star put on a show: he logged 36 minutes, scoring 29 points on 11-20 shooting (5-11 from deep) along with 11 assists. Turnovers were an issue (four for Curry), but otherwise, it was a pretty impressive game.

March 5, 2020 – Warriors vs. Raptors

The 2019-2020 season was a complete disaster for the Warriors. They were already worse for wear to start the year, with Klay Thompson being ruled out due to the ACL injury he suffered in the Finals. To make matters worse, though, Steph Curry broke his hand in the first few weeks of the season, ruling him out for most of the year.

The Warriors predictably spiraled in Curry's absence, winning just 15 games that year. Steph did return for one game that season: a rematch against the Toronto Raptors at home. Steph Curry played  just 27 minutes and scored 23 points, albeit on uncharacteristically bad shooting (6-16 from the field and 3-12 from three). Kerr and the staff did not push Curry's minutes, likely since the season was already over for them at that point.

Steph would proceed to miss the next two games due to an illness. The Warriors' season would subsequently end due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

January 10, 2023 – Warriors vs. Suns

The most recent example of Steph Curry's return from a lengthy absence happened earlier this year. The Warriors star suffered a dislocated shoulder injury in December of 2022, forcing him to miss around four weeks of action. Curry eventually returned after a month in a marquee matchup against the Phoenix Suns at home.

Steph Curry played 31 minutes of action in the blowout loss, and his stats didn't look good. He scored 24 points on 8-of-22 shooting (and 5-of-15 from deep), had just three assists and one rebound. The Warriors star also had four fouls, which probably impacted his playing time as well.

Conclusions

In general, the Warriors have taken a cautious approach when it comes to Steph Curry's return from injury, limiting his minutes played. This is especially true in the regular season, when the stakes are a bit lower than a playoff setting. Kerr's rotation also keeps Curry and most of the Warriors' star under a minutes restriction (Steph has never averaged over 35 minutes per game under Kerr in the regular season).

It's worth noting, though, that this could be a different situation for the Warriors. Golden State is trying to avoid the play-in tournament. The Timberwolves, Mavs, and Clippers are lurking just beneath them in the standings. They'll need every win they can get, and that might mean Curry playing more minutes than usual.