The Boston Celtics return to action with their traditional post-All-Star Western Conference road trip, starting Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors.
The Celtics enter the game with only Jayson Tatum remaining on the injury report. He remains out, even though many believe he’s inching closer to a return at some point, potentially, in March.
The Warriors, though, will continue to miss Steph Curry, who will miss his sixth game because of right patellofemoral pain syndrome. According to the Mayo Clinic, that is “pain at the front of the knee, around the kneecap. The kneecap also is known as the patella. Patellofemoral pain syndrome is sometimes called runner's knee.”
Curry did not practice as the Warriors returned to the floor on Wednesday.
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“It’s unfortunate, but we’ll have an update tomorrow after he goes through his time with the training staff tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said (via NBC Sports Bay Area). “It's a little tricky. We’re going to keep plugging away with it. Steph will take the right steps. Our training staff will continue to work with him, and now we’ll see where it goes.”
The Warriors are already without Jimmy Butler, who is out for the rest of the season with a right ACL tear. Curry’s brother Seth, who has missed 24 games with a Sciatic nerve injury, is making progress to a return, but remains out for at least two more weeks.
There is some good news for the Warriors, and for Celtics fans. Kristaps Porzingis, whom the Warriors acquired in the Jonathan Kuminga trade, has been upgraded to questionable. He has been dealing with left Achilles soreness. He did practice, and said he felt good after the workout.
Kristaps Porzingis on the Warriors: “I like the offense. I like the simplicity. I like the freedom.”
Said it’d be “weird” to face Celtics tomorrow next to Al Horford pic.twitter.com/kuoB26AJsl
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 19, 2026
Porzingis has had a tough journey, beginning with the illness that limited the end of his tenure in Boston, which was ultimately diagnosed as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). He was then traded to Atlanta, where he missed significant time with an illness and the Achilles issue. Porzingis is hoping to not only salvage his season, but prove that he can be healthy enough for a team to sign him this offseason.
The trade to Golden State sets him up for a very unique possibility on Thursday night. He and new teammate Al Horford were championship teammates in Boston up until this summer. Horford signed with the Warriors while Porzingis was traded to Atlanta, so to team up Horford again, against their former team, is weird.
“If somebody said while we were in Boston that this was going to be the scenario, who would believe this?” he said. “But this is how it works out.”