The Warriors’ “strength in numbers” motto was all well and good in October and early November.
Then the numbers started whittling down, the league wised up, and the problem the Warriors never solved began rearing its ugly head once again.
After a red-hot start to the season, the Dubs have lost five straight games.
That No. 1 seed in the Western Conference this team held 10 days ago? That’s gone.
In fact, the Warriors now are a play-in tournament team in the standings.
Tuesday’s loss to the Nuggets was the perfect encapsulation of the slide. Down Draymond Green (calf injury) the Warriors played hard and were beating Denver by 11 with a little over six minutes to play. When Jonathan Kuminga dunked in transition on a beautiful feed from Curry to put the Warriors up 111-103 with 4:32 to play, the Warriors had to feel good about seeing the contest through.
That was the last basket scored by someone who is not Curry.
And Curry only scored four points — making only 2 of 10 shots and missing all five 3-pointers down the stretch — as Denver scored 16 on 80 percent shooting in the final 270 seconds to lift the Nuggets to a 119-115 win.
The Warriors missed Green on the defensive side and didn’t have anyone to help Curry.
They faded in the moments when the cheese became more binding.
Consider it a trend.
And it’s one that will continue unless the Warriors address the issue in the trade market by acquiring a viable No. 2 offensive option to play next to Curry.
The problem there is that this past offseason was the best time to buy such a player. The Warriors passed, overvaluing already overrated players in a trade and opting to keep the Dubs’ roster together.
That looked great early this campaign when the games were treated as meaningless.
Now that teams are merely starting to try and the Warriors roster isn’t as deep as it was in October, this looks like a colossal mistake, and it will be expensive to fix now.
But it has to be fixed, and the solution is not on the current roster.
Last Wednesday against Oklahoma City, the Dubs didn’t have Curry, but had a three-point lead with 5:45 to play. The Warriors shot 2-for-17 down the stretch to lose that game.
Last Monday, against the Nets, the Dubs missed three of six free throws and couldn’t keep up with Brooklyn’s offense in the final five minutes—a one-point margin with 5:26 to play turned into an eight-point loss.
And against the Spurs on Nov. 23 — the game that started this losing streak — the Warriors choked away a nine-point early fourth-quarter lead, with the game being tied with 4:25 to play.
The Warriors shot 1-for-8 the rest of the way, with Curry making the only basket and his teammates going 0-for-5 in what would be a 10-point loss.
In all, the last five Warriors games have been within five points with five minutes or fewer to play — parameters the NBA considered “clutch.”
Steph Curry (who has played in four) has made two field goals in those five situations.
The rest of the Warriors have also made two… on 24 attempts.
Wiggins is 1-for-5 with two turnovers.
Kuminga is 0-for-6 with three fouls and one turnover.
And this season, the Warriors have been in 12 “clutch” games and have a bottom-third net rating with the sixth-worst offense.
“Overpaying” for Lauri Markkanen this past offseason doesn’t seem like such a bad idea now, does it?
Yes, suffice it to say that these Dubs aren’t closers, and the team’s one quality late-game scorer, Curry, cannot do it alone.
The rest of the league has figured it out. They’re daring anyone else to score when Curry is on the floor. Who has made them pay?
It certainly hasn’t been Andrew Wiggins or Kuminga — the top options to be Curry’s “No. 2” on this team.
It’s not Buddy Hield, who, now that he’s no longer hitting an absurd 50 percent of his 3-pointers is giving up as much as he gets.
It seems as if the loss of Anthony Melton to a season-long knee injury has melted down the Dubs, but how can you really miss someone who was barely here?
Well, in response to that absence (and others), you’re playing two guys who were in the G-League last season, Lindy Waters and Pat Spencer, a combined 113 minutes in these last five losses; it makes Melton’s absence seem massive.
This problem is only going to get worse. The deeper in the campaign we go, the more teams’ efforts are ramped up. Playing hard was a novel and refreshing thing to see in the first few weeks of the season, but now that everyone is in it to win it, the Warriors are clearly lacking.
Spirit and camaraderie can only take you so far in this league.
It’s taken the Warriors to 12 wins — a number they have sat on since Nov. 22.
The Warriors will win again—perhaps more than they lose—from this point on. But their play lately is an early preview of what’s to come in the big moments of the campaign.
So fire up the trade machine and wild speculation: If the Warriors are going to turn this season into something to remember, they have to acquire someone else who can create and make a bucket late in a game.
All qualified applicants may apply.
