Warriors' Steph Curry era faces reckoning as Rockets force Game 7

Stephen Curry went on one of his patented runs.

Late in the first half, Curry rattled off an 11-0 personal surge.

But at the end of it, his Golden State Warriors still trailed the Houston Rockets by five points, and they never made it all the way back in a Game 6 defeat.

That's back-to-back losses, and Curry and the Warriors now head to a Game 7 that will also serve as a reckoning.

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Some thought that Curry's era of Golden State dominance was over a long time ago, but then the Warriors won the 2022 title.

This season looked like a potentially lost cause at sub-.500, but then the trade deadline deal for Jimmy Butler changed everything.

Golden State went up 3-1 in this series against the Rockets and looked like once again, Curry would make a deep postseason push.

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Houston, the young up-and-comers, has other plans, though.

This time around might be the real do-or-die for Curry and company.

The Warriors won't blow everything up entirely, but this really had to be the last dance.

Curry is 37. Butler and Draymond Green are 35.

To win an NBA championship is mighty difficult anyway, but in a year's time with that big three, it'll be even tougher.

These Warriors were truly playing like the best team in basketball for a stretch in the second half of the season with Butler.

They can return to that pinnacle and try to make one last championship run. Game 7 can secure additional chapters to the legacies of a few of the game's all-time greats.

But it will come down to that one game on Sunday night. A loss there and Golden State has no choice but to consider what its future could look like if Butler and/or Green weren't in the picture.

Curry almost certainly will finish his career with the Warriors, going down shooting until the very end.

But around him? Golden State will eventually start to shift into a new era.

The Curry timeline won out, over and over again. But when that recedes, the Warriors will have to know where their path is heading.

Right now, late Friday night into Saturday, those are still future concerns. The Warriors have a one-game opportunity to banish the bad thoughts out into a couple weeks from now, at the very least.

This deep into careers, you'll take that. Getting another week of basketball? That's where it starts. And then the Warriors will hope one win Sunday can propel them to another month-plus of hooping and winning.

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