As the Golden State Warriors navigate a challenging stretch of their season, their current trajectory is a microcosm of their broader struggles without their talisman, Stephen Curry, on the floor. Currently holding a respectable record of 12 wins and 5 losses, the Warriors are poised to face off against the Oklahoma City Thunder this Wednesday, but underlying issues continue to surface, particularly when Curry is absent from the action.
The Warriors have demonstrated an unsettling inconsistency in closing out games, plagued by their inability to maintain leads. In their two most recent games, they squandered significant leads—17 and 18 points respectively—signifying that the team struggles to maintain a competitive edge in Curry's absence. This issue reached its zenith when they surrendered a 31-point lead to the Houston Rockets before managing to clinch the victory in overtime. Similarly, against the Washington Wizards, a 17-point lead was worryingly trimmed to just five points in the final quarter, although they managed to eke out a win.
Adding to the complications, a matchup against the San Antonio Spurs saw the Warriors concede a 27-point swing in the closing 15 minutes of the game. All these scenarios point towards a pattern that, while not new, has become alarmingly frequent, raising questions about the team’s depth and resilience.
One glaring statistical highlight pertains to the Warriors’ offensive efficiency. When Curry is off the court, the Warriors amass only 105.7 points per 100 possessions, sinking to the 10th percentile of all five-man lineups. This stark drop underscores Curry's profound impact on the team's performance and highlights the urgency with which the Warriors need to address this dependency if they aim to sustain their campaign.
This period has been particularly grueling for the Warriors, with a congested schedule of three games in four nights contributing to fatigue and lapses in concentration. Additionally, the absence of Jonathan Kuminga in the last two games has further limited coach Steve Kerr's options, perhaps exacerbating the rotational and strategic difficulties faced by the team.
Looking beyond the immediate, the Warriors are set to tackle a gauntlet of difficult fixtures as they prepare to enter the NBA Cup quarterfinals. This rearrangement of fixtures will undoubtedly test the team’s resilience, as they will encounter several formidable opponents in their next 17 games. Of note, the Los Angeles Clippers have already defeated the Warriors twice this season, serving as a fresh reminder of the formidable challenge lurking ahead.
The calendar doesn’t get any easier with upcoming clashes against the Philadelphia 76ers, where the Warriors will confront the challenge posed by Joel Embiid and Paul George, which promises to test every facet of the team’s resolve and execution.
As the Warriors prepare for these upcoming tests, they are confronted with the need to rectify their fourth-quarter collapses and find consistent contributors aside from Stephen Curry. The passage of the weeks will reveal whether the Warriors can evolve from a Stephen Curry-centric team into a more balanced squad capable of asserting dominance across all quarters.
The journey ahead will demand strategic adjustments, deeper contributions from the bench, and perhaps a recalibration of tactics to fortify their lineup against the fissures that have been exposed in recent outings. For a team with championship aspirations, finding solutions and fostering resilience will be key as they tread into the testing waters of their upcoming fixtures.