CHARLOTTE – A glance through the stands at Spectrum Center on Wednesday could have left a deceptive impression. If the average paying customer was not wearing a blue-and-gold “Curry” Warriors jersey, they were either decked out in a red “Curry” Davidson outfit or perhaps white “Curry” USA garb.
The host Hornets? Barely an afterthought to the returning hometown son on New Year’s Eve.
With a scintillating 26 points in the Warriors’ 132-125 victory over the Hornets, Steph Curry thrilled the crowd of 19,265 while leading the Warriors to a second consecutive victory and fifth win in six games. His father, Dell, called the game from the broadcast table while his younger brother Seth sat on the bench.
“It was a family homecoming, kind of a reunion,” Curry said, later adding, “I think it (would be) great for the city if the team is facing both playoff experiences and opportunities … and obviously, see them lose twice a year when we play them.”
Curry did not do it alone. Brandin Podziemski came off the bench and poured in 21 points, an effort that included a highlight 3-pointer made while running to his right off one leg as the shot clock expired. Jimmy Butler scored 19 and Draymond Green scored 10 and dished out 12 assists.
“This is one of the few arenas I don’t get boo’ed in,” Green said when asked about the kind of affection the crowd had for Curry’s Warriors.
Brandon Miller put in 33 points for Charlotte, Kon Knueppel scored 20 and LaMelo Ball scored 24.
The Warriors led by double figures in the second half but found themselves embroiled in another tight game against the young Hornets. Curry made a floater, Will Richard popped in a corner triple and Green even made one from behind the arc to stay ahead, but the Hornets, thanks to shotmaking from Ball and Miller, stuck around.
The Warriors went up by six with a minute left when a combination of Richard and Green tipped in a missed Curry 3-pointer, and the Warriors salted it away from there. Curry appeared to tweak his left ankle with 18 seconds on the clock, but he stayed in the game.
Tipping off at 10 a.m. Pacific as part of an NBA TV tripleheader, neither team looked particularly interested in defending at such an early hour. The score was knotted at 30 after 12 minutes, and the Warriors led 69-64 at halftime.
The lead grew to 79-64 three minutes into the second half, but Ball buried back-to-back 3s to cap a comeback that saw Charlotte lead 100-98 after three quarters.
The Warriors (18-16) were coming off a nice bounce-back victory in Brooklyn, and have now won five of their last six to end 2025, and are set to play 10 of their next 11 games at home.
“We’ve got to take advantage of it for sure,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “The schedule was against us for the first couple months of the season, and now it flips back the other way. We’ve got to take advantage.”
Golden State’s first game of 2026 will take place back at Chase Center on Friday against the defending champion Thunder (7 p.m., NBC Sports Bay Area/Prime Video).
Curry’s shooting influence
Curry changed the game, and that change is on stark display in his hometown.
LaMelo Ball, an early heir apparent to Curry as a flashy guard with a deadly shot, is taking 9.0 3-pointers a game. Rookie teammate Kon Knueppel stands at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds, and perhaps in an earlier era, would have been asked to fire mid-post fadeaways over his right shoulder.
Instead, the 19-year-old is averaging 19.7 points per game and is taking 8.5 3-point attempts per game, recently becoming the fastest player to 100 career triples (29 games).
Even Kerr had to wonder where Curry would rank if he had been given such a green light early in his career.
“That’s too many numbers for me to think about,” Kerr said, before adding, “Steph definitely paved the way for volume 3-point shooting. He was shooting a lot early, I mean, I guess his first years maybe not as much, but by years four and five, he definitely changed the way everybody thinks about what’s a good shot.”
Go-Go Gui
Gui Santos’ playing time comes and goes, playing 15 minutes one night, and being a healthy scratch another. But his energy, his verve, his unrelenting will to grab offensive rebounds? That remains consistent.
The third-year Brazilian forward played nine minutes in the second quarter and kept multiple possessions alive with his activity, even if Santos was credited with only one offensive rebound. But he also made all four of his shots, including a trio of 3-pointers.
Santos ended the night with 13 points and five rebounds, two on the offensive glass.
“The way that I play, the spirit that I bring to the game, it is because of where I come from,” Santos said of his native Brazil. “We love to play like that, and for us to make the NBA is so hard, we know that when we get here, we know that is even harder to keep ourselves in the NBA.”
Street renamed
Davidson, the local college that Curry helped put on the map during an iconic Elite Eight run in 2008, honored the school’s general manager by renaming a street after him.
Exit 30, the road that leads to Davidson off Interstate 77, was renamed to Steph Curry Interchange during halftime of Tuesday’s men’s basketball game between the host Wildcats and Duquesne.
Though Davidson lost 89-83 in double overtime, all enjoyed the lavish ceremony that included a speech from Curry and another ovation for former coach and Hall of Fame nominee Bob McKillop.
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