Curry is Back

 The day Warriors fans and nearly every NBA fan have been waiting for is finally here: Steph Curry is back! (On a minute restriction, of course)

As most of us know, the unanimous MVP of the league has missed all but four games of the season, but made his return at home against the Raptors - a team they haven't faced since last year's NBA Finals.

Both rosters have seen a lot of turnovers since they met in the finals. To start, both teams lost Finals MVPs (Golden State lost two if we're counting Iggy).  Golden State traded for D'Angelo Russell to a max contract just to ship him away not even a full season later.  That's a trade I actually love for the Warriors and I think Wiggins will thrive in that offense. In fact, since joining the Warriors, Wiggins has averaged 20.2 PTS, 3.6 AST, 4.9 REB & 1.5 Blocks. Plus, this move will provide another body to throw at guards to hide Steph defensively until Klay is healthy enough and prevent him from over-exerting his knee.

The Man of the Hour:
So how did Curry look?

Well, a little rusty to start, truth be told. But who didn't expect that?
He still managed a respectable stat line and will hopefully only improve from here.

As we can see, Steph wasn't exactly efficient, but just seeing him on the court again with flashes of what he's capable of and the confidence it gave his teammates, has to get fans excited for next year. Not to mention he almost had a triple-double his first game back. Watching how the chemistry develops between Curry, Wiggins, Draymond and the of the roster to see what works and what doesn't will be an interesting storyline to follow from now until the playoffs. 

As for the actual recap, this was an extremely competitive game wire to wire, one of the best of the night.  It feels like Curry is joining the warriors at a time where the younger players are really starting to buy into the system Kerr is selling in terms of ball movement. Adding Curry only added to that, and the results showed on the court.

In the end, the depth and experience led by Kyle Lowry (26 PTS,10 AST, 5 REB) and Normal Powell (37 PTS, 2 AST, 5 REB), proved too much for the Warriors to overcome.  After a  driving floater by Pascal Siakam (17 Pts, 5 AST) with 45.7 left in the game put the Raptors up 117-113, the game was essentially put away by four consecutive free throws by Normal Powell after a clear path violation.

In the end, for Toronto, a win is a win. For the Warriors, getting Steph back should be enough of a consolation prize for the night!