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Ohm Youngmisuk, ESPN Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — Coach Steve Kerr said the Golden State Warriors are suffering from a “crisis of confidence” after a second straight blowout loss at home.
Following a listless 114-98 loss to the Miami Heat on Tuesday night at Chase Center, the Warriors’ 15th defeat in 21 games, a frustrated Stephen Curry said the emotion was “just pissed off.”
“You’re trying to figure it out,” said an exasperated Curry, who tallied 31 points and seven assists. “Everybody in the locker room is kind of searching a little bit, trying to understand what’s going wrong, why we can’t get off to better starts. Moments in the game where you’re climbing back, you can’t get consecutive stops. Bad possessions on offense that affect our confidence and body language and the vibe.
“There’s a lot wrong, but what are you going to do about it? We have to dig deep, figure it out, believe that we are a good team. Got to stop talking about it and around it and just fight our way through it.”
Golden State (18-18) has been desperately trying to decipher how to get back on track. Since opening the season 12-3, the Warriors have looked like a completely different team. Curry has tried meeting with teammates to emphasize how they are at a critical juncture in the season from which they can go one way or the other. He also has tried celebrating his 3-point baskets more in an attempt to inject the team with more joy and fun.
The Warriors, though, have had stretches where they can’t score, can’t shoot and can’t defend. But perhaps most disturbing to Kerr was a lack of fight against Miami.
“I expected better energy,” Kerr said. “I think we’re suffering from a crisis of confidence right now, frankly. You can see it. You can feel it. I don’t mind missed shots, but I mind when missed shots affect the defense and the attitude.
“We feel deflated right now. And there’s no room for feeling sorry for ourselves in the NBA, in life in general. We can’t let disappointment dictate our approach to the game. We have to do the opposite. We have to bring more fire. We have to outcompete our opponents when things aren’t going our way. And that was what was most disappointing tonight, was I just felt like everybody was down and we didn’t have a competitive spirit. And if you don’t have that, you’ve got nothing.”
This came after the Warriors were routed by Sacramento 129-99 at home on Sunday despite the Kings being without De’Aaron Fox.
Golden State was looking to rebound Tuesday knowing that Miami was dealing with the Jimmy Butler suspension and on a three-game losing streak following a 123-118 double-overtime loss in Sacramento the night before.
When Curry came out of the game with 3:05 left and the Warriors down 112-94, the franchise star wandered up and down the team’s sideline during the timeout looking out of answers.
In each of their past four defeats, the Warriors have failed to crack 100 points.
Curry was asked how the Warriors can improve offensively after shooting just 40.8% overall, including 14-of-50 from behind the arc, against the Heat (18-17).
“Honestly, I have no idea,” said Curry, who called the past two home losses “back-to-back no-shows.”
“I wish I — we’re going to try to figure it out, but I don’t have an answer right now.”
Golden State now hits the road to play the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves while looking to find an answer to a slump it has been mired in since just before Thanksgiving.
“When shots are falling, everything’s nice, everything’s great,” said Warriors center Trayce Jackson-Davis, who had 19 points during Tuesday’s outing. “We can’t be front-runners; we got to dig in, we got to find our soul. That’s what Draymond [Green] kind of said. It was our soul that we’ve lost. We’ve lost our spirit, and we got to get that back and we got to play tough basketball.
“We got to play with confidence, stick shots and play hard on the defensive end of the floor, and I think if we do that, we’ll find our way back.”