Stephen Curry’s struggles are why Warriors can’t beat the Thunder

The Golden State Warriors, who won their way into the record books during the regular season, are on the brink of elimination. Their loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night puts them down 3-1 in the Western Conference final, a hole from which only nine of 232 teams in NBA history have managed to crawl out.

Give credit to coach Billy Donovan for making the necessary adjustments and to the Thunder’s superstars for coming up big in key moments. Russell Westbrook netted a triple-double (36 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists) in Game 4. Kevin Durant scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Serge Ibaka added 17 points and seven rebounds.

“I think we’re in a good place, but like I said, this game is over,” Westbrook said after the game. “We’ve got to move on to the next game. Every game is different.”

Every player is different, too, and right now two-time MVP Stephen Curry is a mere shell of his former self for the Warriors. After exploding for 28 points in Game 2 - including 15 straight points without a teammate making a basket - Curry has been average, at best. It’s been so bad for Curry (6 for 20 from the field with six turnovers in Game 4) members of the media are asking Warriors head coach Steve Kerr if his superstar is playing hurt.

“He’s not injured,” Kerr told reporters. “He’s coming back from the knee, but he’s not injured. He just had a lousy night. It happens, even to the best players in the world.”

This is more than just a “lousy night,” this is a lousy series, and you can credit the Thunder’s defense as much as you can blame Curry for not being effective.

For example, the Thunder are forcing Curry into making bad decisions. He is second on the team with 17.4 turnovers per 100 possessions in the playoffs and has had problems overcoming Oklahoma City’s length on the court.

But Curry has lost the handle on the ball, as well. And there have been times when Curry simply looks out of sync with the offense.

He just isn’t the same offensively. On wide-open shots, those where the primary defender is five or more feet away, Curry shot 47 percent from the field during the regular season and hit 48 percent of his 3-point attempts. Against the Thunder that has dropped to 43 and 35 percent, respectively. And, perhaps surprisingly, the Thunder are giving Curry more open looks as a percentage of shots taken (69 percent of field goals) than any team did during the regular season (53 percent).

During the regular season, Curry averaged a game score - a metric created by John Hollinger to give a rough measure of a player’s productivity for a single game - of 24.6. In wins it was 25.2 and dropped to 19.3 in the nine losses. Curry has an average game score of 16.2 in the playoffs against Oklahoma City. Looked at another way, Curry has gone from the best player in the NBA to a version on par with Charlotte’s Kemba Walker.

“We all have to bounce back,” Kerr said. “The good news is, we go home. Obviously we play well at home. The idea now is to go home and get one win. Do that, and we put some pressure on them and we’ll see what happens.”

No one would argue giving Curry, who has done things on the court never seen in the NBA before, the benefit of the doubt when it comes to pulling out of a slump, but with prognosticators like FiveThirtyEight giving Golden State a 16 percent chance at a comeback, the damage may already be done.