What Makes Warriors Go From Super Villains to Far From Golden

If it seems like the Golden State Warriors are hurt more often this year than they have been in the past, it isn't actually so even though it seems like it. But because of new reporting requirements in which teams must produce a public injury report, the Warriors always seem to have more than their share, and half the time (21 games), a member of the Gang Of Four is on it.
 
Indeed, since Game 12 (November 8 v. Minnesota), Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson have played together only 12 times, and only six times since Thanksgiving. In those games, they are 6-0, and 12-4 with at least one missing, so this is not a story about roster rot. Teams that play .818 ball have traditionally done well over time, having won six of the six available championships available to them.
 
Some of these are games in which they could play but were rested, and some actually had an injury that required tending. Wednesday's 125-106 loss to the Lou Williams Clippers had a bit of each, with Klay Thompson on R&R and Stephen Curry with a freshly barked ankle, and the result caused head coach Steve Kerr great consternation because of lack of energy and shoddy defense.
 
It was also the eighth time in two years that some combination of Options C,D, G and T missed games together, and the Warriors are a very normalized 4-4 – 4-3 if you decide to throw out the now-infamous 2017 game in March which Kerr held out all four in San Antonio on the same night Gregg Popovich did without Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker and LaMarcus Aldridge. The Spurs won by 22, and the two best players were Patty Mills and Ian Clark, if that helps you better comprehend.
 
The point? As Kerr is being more judicious about his lineups and the league is turning more conservative about player usage, the Warriors at full strength may no longer be a luxury they can afford until the mid-March push, by which time they will already be safely playoffed and maybe even top-seeded.
 
In the last four years, they are 14-4 without Green, 18-10 without Curry, 6-6 without Thompson and in the past two seasons 24-5 without Durant. That's about a season's worth of .735 basketball with one of them out, or still the one-seed in the West.
 
They just have to do what people of even average intelligence knew they have had to do since they first became the Warriors – improve their off-day and injury spacing. In short, they still are who we thought they were.