"Just were not playing the way we're supposed to," Stephen Curry said. "It was just a bad flashback."
Unexpected losses are a regular part of every NBA season. But the Warriors have lost to Cleveland, Charlotte, Minnesota, Washington and Denver.
They needed a last-second shot to stave off visiting Boston, and San Antonio won at Oracle despite sitting its three best players.
To be fair, the Wizards have a winning record and are eyeing the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Bobcats are a playoff team in the East and were at home.
The Timberwolves are a .500 team that was expected to be vying for a playoff spot. So not all of these are humiliating losses.
But these failures do reveal kinks in the Warriors: They have a real problem with athletic frontlines; their best players struggle to be productive on off nights; and their system doesn't compensate well for those offensive struggles.
You can also question the mental toughness of this team, though that's hard to do for one of the best defenses in the league.
It's not that the Warriors don't have the fortitude to address adversity. They just don't show the maturity to muster it consistently.
That's just who they are. If they had that Spurs-like consistency, the Warriors would be among the top four teams. But they don't, which is why they're not.
The good news, though, is these periodic lapses don't figure to hurt the Warriors too much.
Too many of them could cost them a playoff spot or drop them a seed. But in the postseason, which is what really matters, their leaks won't hurt as much.
They won't have to worry about manufacturing their own intensity or playing down to the level of the competition.
And if too many key guys don't play well, they don't have a shot anyway.
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