SAN FRANCISCO — A little less than 90 minutes before tipoff Sunday night, a gospel track remixed into a hip-hop beat overtook the soundsystem inside the Warriors’ arena.
This was not your typical pregame soundtrack, for this was not just any game.
“You know, this is Easter Sunday,” Stephen Curry noted. “Resurrection Sunday.”
And he has risen. Risen, indeed.
Curry’s famed warm-up routine took on new meaning as he prepared to take the floor for the first time since Jan. 30. His adoring disciples lined the courtside seats five rows deep.
The imagery wasn’t lost on anybody when Curry emerged from the tunnel to Kanye West’s “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1.” And he was just getting started.
In his return from a 27-game absence with a persistent and unpredictable knee injury, Curry looked like he could turn water into wine, even if he couldn’t quite will the Warriors all the way back from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit in a 117-116 loss to the Rockets.
“You can just feel it. We’re back in the mix. We’re back in the fight with Steph,” coach Steve Kerr said. “That’s a hell of a team, they’ve been really hot lately, fully healthy. We took them down to the last shot.”
The arena buzzed like it rarely had over the past two months, as the Warriors went 9-18 without Curry, evolving from pregnant anticipation to a playoff-like fever pitch in the game’s final minute.
Of course, the last shot belonged to Curry.
After Alperen Sengun put the Rockets up by one with 11 seconds left, Kerr opted not to take timeout. Draymond Green attempted to free up Curry on a double screen at the top of the key, but Curry had to settle for a contested 30-footer that clanked off the rim.
Everything that led to the moment made it feel like the ball would find the bottom of the net. After all, Curry drained an even more improbable shot from 32 feet and dribbled around Kevin Durant to convert a teardrop layup in traffic as the Warriors stormed back from a 10-point deficit with 4:51 to play to take a short-lived lead with less than 30 seconds left.
“Even though we didn’t get it done, that’s been the hardest part of these last two months,” Curry said. “There’s been games where the game is hanging in the balance and sometimes we’d struggle to score, struggle to close games. You feel kind of helpless.”
With fate back in his own hands, Curry scored eight of his team-best 29 points during that final stretch. He came off the bench and was limited to 26 minutes but still managed to get off 21 shots, connecting on 11 of them, including 5 of his 10 attempts from 3.
The performance amounted to a good omen for the Warriors, who have four games left in the regular season to get Curry and the rest of their aging, injured roster up to speed for the play-in tournament, where they will face one win-or-go-home game followed by another.
“Steph looked amazing. He’s worked really hard for this. You can see, it doesn’t take much for him to find his rhythm,” Kerr said. “His rhythm is also our rhythm, all the off-ball stuff that we get as a result of his movement. We got a lot of easy layups.”
Curry said he initially believed the injury — commonly known as runner’s knee — would keep him out for a week to 10 days. Outsiders questioned whether it was worth it for him to come back at all. All along, Curry continued to rehab with one goal.
He wanted to play meaningful basketball.
“You could kind of feel it in the arena,” Curry said. “It was a different vibe.”
The 7 p.m. tipoff was later than normal for a Sunday, and Curry acknowledged that he was a “nervous wreck trying to pass the hours.” His family helped calm his nerves, and once he got to the arena, “muscle memory kind of takes over, the adrenaline takes over,” he said.
Curry had some extra time on his hands, coming off the bench for the first time in the regular season since March 7, 2012. That allowed him to play 26 of a possible 48 minutes after bringing the crowd to its feet when he checked in for the first time with 4:54 left in the first quarter.
Curry will operate under a similar restriction Tuesday against the Kings. He will likely start the game on the bench again, but Kerr said, “He’ll be in the starting lineup soon.”
The second time Curry checked in, midway through the second quarter, didn’t get the same reception. But it was even more meaningful for at least a few people in the building.
“My mom was in the stands,” Curry said. “She probably didn’t have any more memory on her phone from taking all the pictures and videos.”
Sonya Curry, the proud mama, got to see her two sons, Steph and Seth, share the court as teammates for the first time since the siblings were at Charlotte Christian School.
Seth Curry signed with Golden State in November but injuries prevented the “rehab brothers,” as Steph deemed them, from playing together until the 78th game of the season.
The brothers swapped jerseys afterward, a practice typically reserved for opponents. This night, however, had been such a long time coming that Seth had to memorialize it in his man cave.
“I got my hands on that right away,” Seth said. “I went in there and asked (the locker room attendant) this morning, as soon as the game’s over, I’m getting my hands on that.”
The two brothers share the same, sweet stroke, a boatload of childhood hoops memories from their father, Dell, and for much of this season, real estate in the training room.
They also shared the same description for this Easter Sunday.
“Dream come true.”