Barber: Warriors seem to be having an identity crisis

HOUSTON - We knew the Rockets were a worthy opponent. We knew they would test the Warriors, maybe even push them to the brink. But we didn't know they would successfully steal the champions' identities.

The Warriors aren't just struggling in the Western Conference final series. They have forgotten who they are.

The team that lost 98-94 at Toyota Center in Game 5 on Thursday bore some resemblance to the team that had faltered at Oracle Arena in Game 4. But it looked nothing like the Warriors to which we have grown accustomed.

The Warriors are elegant, a pleasure to watch. They run the court like greyhounds, passing from corner to corner like the mechanics of a pinball machine, spinning opponents dizzy with their movement. There was none of that in Game 4, and only a bit of it in Game 5. And when the ball did move, the Warriors couldn't capitalize.

The Rockets aren't basketball players. They're body snatchers. They wheeled in pods before Game 4, and now we're left watching artificial Kevin Durant and fake Stephen Curry, longing for the team that made us love the NBA over the past four years.

Game 6 is Saturday night at Oracle. It's an elimination game, the first time Golden State has been on the wrong end of that equation since Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. It's freak-out time, but the pod-Warriors seem unperturbed.

Steve Kerr didn't agree that the real Warriors have disappeared.

“I liked the overall flow of the game much better tonight,” the coach said after the game. “It felt much better than it did in Game 4. But we got rushed in transition. We had several turnovers where we just kind of got a little too excited and threw the ball away. … I always tell our guys, hit singles. We were trying to hit triples.”

But the Warriors have never been just singles hitters. These guys aren't Tony Gwynn. They're Barry Bonds, swinging for the fences and frequently surpassing them. Turnovers have always been a part of the repertoire.

So has passing. But the Warriors have forgotten that. They averaged 29.3 assists per game during the 2017-18 regular season. Against the Rockets in this series, they have dished out, in order, 24, 21, 20, 12 and 18.

Rather than whipping the ball around the arc, and in and out of the paint like magicians, the new Warriors frequently seem content to let Durant dribble himself into an open (or not so open) look. They did a better job of pushing the ball down the court on Thursday. But things still bogged down in the halfcourt, and once again they were left with low-percentage shots.

The Warriors didn't do this to themselves. The Rockets have simply asserted their will on the series.

“They just get in you,” backup guard Shaun Livingston said of the opponent. “They're more of a physical team. I mean, you look at 'em, and they got some linebackers out there. They're built to really play physical basketball. In a playoff situation, that's what it comes down to.”

Livingston is part of a bench that has helped carry the Warriors to four consecutive West finals, and two NBA championships. But Andre Iguodala's knee injury (he missed Game 5) has thrown off the rotations, and that bench is getting killed by Houston's. On Thursday, the Houston reserves outscored the Golden State reserves 33-4, though they played roughly the same number of minutes. So un-Warrior-like.

Give the Warriors credit, they fought hard in Game 5. It was a gritty game, and sometimes an ugly one, and they got down in the muck and wrestled. But they never looked comfortable doing it. The offense was herky-jerky and rarely sustained.

Durant, who dominated the early stages of this postseason, hit 8 of 22 attempts. Curry didn't even take a shot for the first 7 minutes and 40 seconds of the game, had zero points in the first quarter, and finished 2 of 8 on 3-point tries. Draymond Green grabbed 15 rebounds but was an uncharacteristic minus-9 while on the court.

The real Warriors showed up only in tiny bursts.

And in the late stages of Game 5, they once again forgot who they were. You knew Durant, Curry, Green and Klay Thompson would be on the floor as closers, but Kerr seemed to be spinning a giant wheel to pick his fifth player. When he sent Kevon Looney into the game with 6:43 left, you figured that might be the final call. But Livingston went in for Looney at the 4:05 mark, Quinn Cook replaced Livingston at 1:21, Looney returned with 10 seconds left, Cook with 6.7 seconds and David West at 2.4.

And as the clock wound down, the Warriors' playmaking went random.

Inside of a minute, with the Rockets clinging to a 95-94 lead, it was Cook who launched a 3-point attempt that was off the mark. He had delivered some big moments for the Warriors when Curry was out with an injury this season. I commend him for his nerve in a pressure-packed situation. But do you really want Quinn Cook taking that shot instead of Curry or Durant?

Curry did take the next one, a driving, contested floater that bounced off the rim. Houston's Trevor Ariza hit a free throw. It was 96-94, a winnable situation for the Warriors. But the game - will we eventually say “the season”? - slipped away when Curry gave up the ball to Green with about five seconds left, and the power forward lost control as he fell to the floor.

“We wanted to get the ball to Steph,” Green explained. “We got the ball to Steph, and he hit it ahead to me and I fumbled the ball. Nothing more, nothing less.”

The real Stephen Curry wouldn't have given up the ball to Green, a great player who is known more for defense and passing than for scoring.

Perched on the brink of elimination and profound disappointment, Kerr sounded an unexpected note of optimism after the game.

“I feel great about where we are right now,” he said. “That may sound crazy, but I feel it. I know exactly what I'm seeing out there, and we defended them beautifully tonight. We got everything we needed. Just too many turnovers, too many reaches, and if we settle down a little bit, we're going to be in really good shape.”

Does that sound like a hyper-competitive NBA coach to you? Even Kerr has been body-snatched. The Warriors now have 48 hours to find themselves. If they don't, they'll be watching the Western Conference-champion Houston Rockets celebrate on their court Saturday.