After a 12-3 start to the season that sparked talk of contention, the Golden State Warriors have gone off the rails to the tune of 18 losses in their last 27 games. The latest, a 125-85 beating at the hands of the Boston Celtics on Monday, qualifies as the worst home loss the Warriors have suffered since a 149-104 loss to Dallas on Jan. 15, 1985. That’s 40 years if you’re counting.
The Warriors, now 21-21, were down 15 at halftime and 34 heading into the fourth quarter. And somehow, this wasn’t the worst loss of the season. The worst home loss, yes, but just over a month ago the Warriors lost at Memphis by 51.
Stephen Curry, who has looked and sounded increasingly defeated in his postgame press conferences as the losing has mounted, was asked how to process a loss of this degree.
“I have no idea,” Curry said with a hung head. “… A big part of our season has been when we can’t score, we lose life, we lose spirit, we lose competitiveness. We can get away with it against some teams, [but] against the defending champs it’s not a good formula for success.”
First, Curry is correct that Golden State’s inability to create any sort of consistent offensive advantage has taken its toll on the team’s defensive and overall juice. It’s understandable. It is such a slog for them to get points on the board that it not only drains their actual energy, but in Curry’s words, their spirit. This is just a defeated team right now.
Second, Curry is being generous with the “we can get away with [poor play] against some teams” thing. The Warriors aren’t getting away with anything against anyone. Again, they’ve lost two out of every three games since their 12-3 start that feels like a lifetime ago. It’s just that a team as good as the Celtics, even though they haven’t been playing that well lately in their own right, is going to make the score even more lopsided.
Curry went on to give the “next man up” rallying cry, which sounded more like a whimper, as a response to how the Warriors will manage to stay afloat moving forward with Draymond Green out at least a week with his strained calf and Jonathan Kuminga out indefinitely with a bad ankle sprain.
But let’s be honest, unless Golden State finds a way to make a significant trade before the Feb. 6 deadline, this team is already sunk.
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