The Golden State Warriors begin a pivotal six-game road trip early in their season on Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Warriors should have a significant piece back for the game.
Stephen Curry, who has missed three consecutive games due to illness, is expected to make his return in Oklahoma City.
“We play some really good teams on the road,” Warriors veteran Jimmy Butler said. “But you gotta win some of these to show that you can compete with the best of them. Obviously, if we got (Curry) our chances of winning goes up drastically. But even if he isn’t ready to go, we still got to go out there and we’ve got to compete because it’s very possible that we can win.”
Golden State is 1-5 away from home this season.
In addition to Tuesday’s matchup against the defending NBA champions, the trip includes back-to-back games against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, plus games at New Orleans, Orlando and Miami.
The Warriors are coming off a 114-83 win over Indiana on Sunday.
A successful road trip could go a long way toward helping Golden State’s case to be a contender in the Western Conference.
“I think it’s significant,” Al Horford said. “I know it’s still November, but it’s a big challenge for our group and the way to address it, and I know that we will: We’ll take it a game at a time and we can’t overlook anyone. You know, all I’m thinking about is OKC. They’re playing at home, they play really well, defending champs.
“So we can’t even think about the rest of it, just have to focus on that first one. That’s going to be great to see kind of where we’re at as a group.”
The Thunder are coming off a 114-100 victory over Memphis on Sunday, a game in which they trailed by 19 before storming back for the victory.
Oklahoma City has won back-to-back games and is an NBA-best 10-1 this season, including 4-0 at home.
After scoring a career-high 33 in Friday’s win in Sacramento, Isaiah Hartenstein was 8-of-11 from the field with 18 points and 13 rebounds in Sunday’s victory.
It took some time for Hartenstein to acclimate last season in his first year with the Thunder, but he appears to have made strides during his time in Oklahoma City.
“He’s gained more and more chemistry with the guys and an understanding of how to blend into this system and this team,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “The combination of those two things has him playing at a very high level.”
The Thunder have been without Luguentz Dort, one of the league’s top defenders, for each of the last three games and four of the last five. Dort suffered a shoulder injury in the Nov. 4 win over the Clippers.
Oklahoma City was also without Aaron Wiggins (thigh) in its last two games.
All-Star Jalen Williams was seen putting up shots with his surgically repaired right hand before the victory in Memphis. Williams has yet to play this season after undergoing surgery on his wrist in the offseason.
All three players are listed as out for Tuesday’s game on the official injury report.
Golden State took two of three from Oklahoma City last season.
