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October 16, 2026
Preseason

Kerr told fans to check the schedule before buying Curry tickets. Here it is.

Golden State's dated schedule has 15 back-to-backs, and six of them end at Chase Center. Kerr said in January 2025 that Curry would be limited on back-to-backs too, and last season Curry played both nights of five of them.

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Grant LombardOct 16, 20264 min read
Every call on this site goes on a public ledger and gets graded. The misses stay up.
Stephen Curry, in a gray Golden State shooting shirt, sits courtside answering a question while a reporter's handheld recorder is held into the frame. Photographed in November 2017.

Steve Kerr offered the public some consumer advice on Thursday, which is a strange thing for a basketball coach to do the week before an opener, and a useful one.

"We have fans who buy tickets expecting to see Steph," Kerr said after practice, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. "And then we have a back-to-back, and we don't play him. I would just come out and tell the fans out there to be mindful (of the schedule) when you're buying the tickets because we've got not just Steph, but we've got multiple vets we are going to try to manage because it's the only way we can do this."

So, the schedule.

The fifteen#

The league has dated 80 of Golden State's 82 regular-season games. The other two are not on the calendar yet. Those 80 contain 15 back-to-backs, by the Warriors' schedule on ESPN and on Basketball Reference, which agree date for date.

Nine of the 15 finish on the road. The earliest by date comes in the season's opening week, Memphis at home on Friday, October 23, and Phoenix on Saturday. The one that reads like a typo is in April, when Golden State plays at Oklahoma City on Thursday the 8th and then again at Oklahoma City on Friday the 9th. That is less a back-to-back than a hotel stay.

The six that finish at Chase Center are the ones Kerr was talking to:

Half of them are in January. If you were going to take somebody to see Curry for a birthday in the middle of winter, check the date twice.

He has said this before#

Kerr has announced a back-to-back rule for Curry before, and the last one is the reason to read this one carefully.

In January 2025, with Curry managing tendinitis in both knees, Kerr told 95.7 The Game's "Willard and Dibs" that "our training staff made the decision a couple weeks ago that we would limit his vulnerability in the back-to-backs," per NBC Sports Bay Area. Curry sat the next night against Memphis.

Then came 2025-26. The Warriors played 16 back-to-backs, and Curry played both nights of five of them, by his game logs on ESPN and Basketball Reference. Denver and Portland on October 23 and 24. Memphis and the Clippers on October 27 and 28. Oklahoma City and San Antonio on November 11 and 12. Toronto and Brooklyn on December 28 and 29, with 41 minutes the first night and 28 the second. Miami and Toronto on January 19 and 20.

That was the last time. Curry played 43 of the 82 games, and Poole notes he missed 27 late in the season after a runner's knee diagnosis. The limit announced in a January radio hit did not make it to the next October, and two of those five came in the season's first eight days.

What is different this time#

Three things. Curry is 38. Kerr said Thursday that the club is "purposely ramping up Steph more slowly this year" with "the knee in mind in particular," and Poole counted 64 minutes for Curry in four preseason games. And this time Kerr said it before the opener, in public, to the people buying the tickets.

The read: the Warriors' best case this season involves Curry playing less, and the second night of a back-to-back is the cheapest place to find the rest. Kerr has now said so to the customers, and a rule announced to the people holding tickets is harder to drop in November than one announced on a radio show.

Anyway. All six of those Chase Center second nights come after a home game the night before, against the Clippers, the Knicks, the Kings, the Lakers, the Cavaliers and the 76ers.

Buy the night before.

The call: Stephen Curry plays in three or fewer of the second games of the 15 back-to-backs on Golden State's dated 2026-27 schedule.

Sources: Steve Kerr's October 15 remarks, Monte Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area, October 15, 2026. Kerr's January 2025 remarks on 95.7 The Game, NBC Sports Bay Area, January 3, 2025. Golden State's 2026-27 schedule, ESPN and Basketball Reference. Curry's 2025-26 game logs and the 2025-26 schedule, ESPN and Basketball Reference.

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