The Golden State Warriors are going through their roughest patch of the dynasty era, thanks to a hellish week that saw Draymond Green and Kevin Durant fight in the locker room and a whole lot of losing on the court. For the first time in the Steve Kerr era, the Warriors have lost four of their last six games. That includes defeats to the Mavericks and Clippers, and a close escape win over the lowly Hawks.
After the team’s third consecutive loss, a 104-92 loss to the Spurs on Sunday, coach Steve Kerr spoke about his team’s rut. He said his team’s been “in a dream,” and now it’s playing in “the real NBA.”
“We’ve had such a charmed existence in the last four seasons, but of course this is the toughest stretch we’ve been in,” Kerr said postgame. “This is the real NBA. We haven’t been in the real NBA these past few years. We’ve been in this dream and so now we’re faced with real adversity, and we’ve gotta get out of it ourselves.”
Having a normal number of superstars on the floor with both Stephen Curry and Draymond Green sidelined to injury hasn’t treated the Warriors well so far.
The Warriors losses have been ugly
Every loss for Golden State is somewhat of a surprise, and it’s even more so seeing three double-digit falls in the same span.
Over the past seven games the Warriors:
- Lost to the Bucks by 23
- Beat the Nets by 16
- Lost to the Clippers in OT by 5
- Beat the Hawks by 7
- Lost to the Rockets by 21
- Lost to the Mavericks by 3
- Lost to the Spurs by 12
Yikes.
In this span, the Warriors have been incredibly un-Warriors-like. The ball has stopped moving, shots are bricking, and the team’s fluidity is non-existent. The proof is in the numbers.
Durant feels it, too.
“I mean ... we just trying to get good looks,” Durant said, according to The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. “I know Warriors basketball is 5, 6, 7 passes in a possession, but we not going to get that at this point. We throw it five or six times and itAs going to end up in a guy’s hands who is trying to give it back to somebody else. We don’t want to just make passes to make passes because it’ll look good on the stat sheet. We trying to find a good shot every time down. Some time it might be a quick shot.
There’s a simple fix, but how much damage has already been done?
Curry has missed 6.5 of the last seven games, and Green has missed three. The obvious solution to the Warriors’ crisis is to have everyone healthy, but nobody knows how long that will take. Green has been day-to-day with a toe injury, and Curry won’t be re-evaluated for his groin injury until at least Nov. 24.
That leaves minimally two more games — against the Thunder and Trail Blazers — before Curry could return, and it could be longer.
Whether Golden State can find the solutions in the short term is yet to be seen, and bigger questions loom. This may be the same core that’s won back-to-back titles, but since Green and Durant’s way-too-personal spat, the chemistry feels much different.
The Warriors are battling the only team that can beat them: themselves. So far, they’re failing on a mental and physical level. The Warriors are in crisis, no matter how privileged it may be.