SAN FRANCISCO – Roughly 47 hours after an “embarrassing” performance, as described by a smoldering Stephen Curry, the Warriors were presented with an invitation to rinse away the shame and wound up bathing in a tub of cold humiliation.
The Miami Heat entered Chase Center on Tuesday reeling. Their leader, Jimmy Butler, is out on a team-issued suspension that has coincided with three consecutive losses, the last a double-overtime defeat Monday in Sacramento. The Heat were, it would seem, vulnerable prey for a hungry hunter.
The Warriors missed their shot, badly, repeatedly, and kept missing until all they had was the furious emptiness of a 114-98 loss that drops their record back to 18-18 and leaves their NBA playoff hopes looking like absurd fantasy.
“[We’re] pissed off,” Curry said. “You’re trying to figure it out. Everybody in the locker room is searching a little bit, trying to understand what’s going wrong, why we can’t get off to better starts. There are moments in the games when you claw back but can’t get consecutive stops. Bad possessions on offense that affect our confidence and body language and the vibe.
"There’s a lot wrong, but what are we going to do about it? We have to dig deep, figure it out, believe that we are a good team. We’ve got to stop talking about it and around it and just fight our way through it.”
The Warriors shot 40.8 percent from the field against Miami. That’s bad enough. Worse, though, is that they shot 28 percent from distance. Curry was 8 of 17 from deep – he scored a game-high 31 points – but his teammates were 6 of 33.
“It seems like both sides of the ball are struggling,” Curry said. “They’re probably connected. If you make shots, usually your confidence goes up and your belief that you can win the game goes up. It helps you play defense. Once you lose that spirit, it’s glaring how bad we can be at times.”
Golden State Warriors
When the Warriors, trailing by double digits most of the night, got within one, 87-86 with 9:34 remaining on a technical free throw by Curry, he sensed an opening. He dipped into his bag, reaching for the magic he so frequently finds, and came out with an empty hand.
The Warriors missed their next three shots, two by Curry, and Miami drained a 3-ball each time, putting the margin back to 10. The Warriors got as close as seven with 6:54 left but were outscored 15-6 the rest of the way.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“This was not a poor-execution game,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We had 28 assists and 10 turnovers. We were just 14-for-50 from the field. We missed a lot of wide-open shots.”
Though Golden State’s .500 record is the definition of mediocrity, these Warriors are hip deep in their longest abysmal stretch ever with Kerr on the bench and Curry active. Their record since Nov. 15 is 6-15. They came home on Dec. 23 facing a favorable schedule, with eight of the next nine games at Chase, hoping to regain their bearings. They went 3-5.
“I think we’re suffering from a crisis of confidence right now, frankly,” Kerr said. “You can see it. You can feel it. I don’t mind missed shots, but I mind when missed shots affect the defense and the attitude. We feel deflated right now, and there’s no room for feeling sorry for ourselves in the NBA – in life in general, right?
“You can’t let disappointment dictate our approach to the game. We have to do the opposite. We have to do the opposite. We have to bring more fire. We have to out-compete our opponents when things aren’t going our way.”
That’s not happening. The Warriors were walloped at home by the Kings, losing by 30. They followed up by losing to a team that played a 58-minute marathon on Monday. The Heat outplayed the Warriors in three of four quarters – with the 10-point margin in the fourth being the most decisive.
It’s clear the abominable performances are getting to Curry. They’re also getting under Kerr’s skin.
“Back-to-back no-shows, pretty much,” Curry said. “And the hard part is these are winnable games against teams that, for whatever reason, are around the same place in the standings that come in and have games against us. Even Miami played a double-overtime game last night and came in here and whipped us. It’s just not a great feeling.”
It's a horrible feeling. And now the Warriors take to the road. By the time they return on Jan. 18, they’ll have four more games on their record. Winning even one game has never been harder for this bunch.
Bottom, meet rock. And feel the chill.
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast
