OAKLAND -- Hold on tight, Warriors fans, for another few days at least. Your favorite team has lost four in a row and might continue to get worked in November by squads it will destroy in March and April and beyond.
It won't get much better until No. 30 comes back. There might be small progressions here and there but no appreciable recovery until Stephen Curry returns, likely sometime next week.
The Warriors privately acknowledge this even as they try to keep their chins up while losing at a rate never previously known under coach Steve Kerr.
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Though the single greatest factor to this slide is the absence of Curry, then followed closely by the absence of Draymond Green, it is elementary and completely unfair to blame Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson for not being able to prevent it.
Some subscribe to the theory that with two All-Stars still on the court, the Warriors should be piling up points and locking down opponents. It doesn't work like that, not with the Warriors. They're built around the gifts of Curry and Green, who are dual suns around which uber-planets Durant and Thompson revolve.
Durant seemed to recognize this shortly after joining the Warriors, even concluding that Curry "is the system" as designed by Kerr and his staff.
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"I didn't mean it like that," Durant said the other day, before a 123-95 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. "I meant that all of us are a huge part of the system, but what Steve crafted with the system was about a lot of misdirection, coming off 3s, shooting 3s, shooting quick 3s, kind of catching the defense off-guard, off the dribble. Those are all Steph's major skills. That's a huge part of what we do, along with Klay coming off pin-downs and Draymond handling at the top and making plays and us flying around on defense.
"But on offense, that's just a huge part of what we do. It's not ALL of what we do, but it's a huge part of what we do. Taking that aspect of it out, because it's so unique, just makes us a different team."
To believe the Warriors would continue to roll despite the current circumstances is a bit like, well, suggesting that the stuffing, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese are enough to get it done on Thanksgiving.
Nah. No matter how fabulous the sides are, they can't compensate for a missing main dish. A good turkey is the sun of supper.
This is no slight on Durant. He can carry a team. He did it in Oklahoma City, most visibly in 2013-14, when his per-game averages were 32 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.3 steals. He shot 50.3 percent overall, 39.1 percent beyond the arc. He led the NBA in PER, win shares, minutes and usage rate. He posted at least 40 points in 14 games and scored at least 25 in 41 consecutive games. The Thunder won 59 games.
Durant was, in that system, at that time, the sun. He was a 25-year-old MVP.
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Thompson is not a sun and has no ambition to be one. He is an amazing streak shooter and among the top 10 two-way players in the league. His skills are the perfect complement to Curry, allowing the two-time MVP to be at his best.
So, as the Warriors await Curry and Green, they juggle and experiment in search of productive combinations. They've started Andre Iguodala at point guard and at small forward. They've started Durant at both forward positions, started two different centers, and tried Quinn Cook and Jonas Jerebko as starters and reserves.
"We'll find our way out," Kerr said. "We have better days ahead, but right now, we are just having a tough go."
Better days indeed will come -- maybe as soon as this weekend against the Trail Blazers and the Kings -- but they're not a certainty until Curry is back. Not until then can the Warriors look like the team their fans have become accustomed to seeing.
