Numbers don't lie: When Splash Brothers struggle, so do Warriors

As Steph and Klay struggle, so do the Warriors. When Stephen Curry loses his shot for a game or two, the Warriors can survive.

Same with Klay Thompson, if his shot deserts him for a couple games.

If both All-Star guards go on the blink at the same time, for more than a couple games, the Warriors suddenly look as if they are confirming Charles Barkley’s false narrative.

Jump shots won’t get it done.

Curry and Thompson, for the third consecutive game, were abandoned by their jump shots. The league’s No. 1 offensive backcourt rolled into Chicago on Thursday night and stunk it up, just as it did Tuesday in Washington and Monday in Philadelphia.

Though there were several other areas in which the Warriors, without Kevin Durant, were deficient in a 94-87 loss to the Bulls at United Center, it was the shooting of Curry and Thompson that sounded alarms at ear-splitting levels.

Curry: 23 points on 10-of-27 shooting, including 2-of-11 from 3-point distance.

Thompson: 13 points on 5-of-22 shooting, including 1-of-11 from deep.

In three games this week, they are a combined 11-of-64 (17.2 percent). This is, for Curry and Thompson, an unprecedented stretch of simultaneous futility. If these two struggle this mightily, the Warriors are bound to struggle along with them.

“Obviously, I didn’t have anything going from the outside,” Curry told reporters afterward. “You need to try to will yourself into making something. A couple of shots we normally make did not fall.

“That’s not the reason we lost. We just need to understand that early in games, when we have new rotations, we cannot take our foot off the gas pedal. Because every possession is important for us to pick up a rhythm without KD (Durant).”

If poor shooting isn’t the reason the Warriors lost, it surely is among the primary reasons, along with a 49-41 rebounding disadvantage, why they did not win.

“You are not always going to shoot well,” coach Steve Kerr said. “When that happens, the ball is gold. You have to value each possession. Our intensity and focus was not there. We didn’t protect the ball; we didn’t go after it. They did a much better job in the fourth quarter of valuing each possession.”

Kerr makes valid points, except he undervalued the impact of atrocious shooting by his top two available scorers.

The defense generally was good enough. The Warriors committed fewer turnovers than the Bulls and scored more points off Chicago giveaways.

“Turnovers, I think we need to take better care of the basketball,” Draymond Green said. “Getting loose balls. I think our defense was pretty good and I think we missed a lot of open shots.”

Everything Green said has some truth to it, with his last point hitting the bullseye.

For this was a case of shots that usually fall, shots we’ve seen Curry and Thompson drain for years, suddenly clanging off the rim or the backboard or failing to hit anything at all.

It’s incredibly difficult to win a game while shooting a season-low 38.6 percent from the field and 20.0 percent beyond the arc -- particularly when the offense is designed to get open looks for the elite shooters. The 87 points also are a season low for the Warriors.

If it were only one game, well, the Warriors would be able to pass it off as struggling with adjusting to playing without Durant, their most productive and efficient player.

But this is three games. This is the best 3-point shooter the league has ever seen suddenly looking like a gunner shaving points at the Y. This is his sidekick with the gorgeous jumper suddenly looking as if he’s searching for a bucket in the dark.

It’s a trend. It won’t last, but the numbers don’t lie.

“Not making shots does not change my approach,” Curry said “Obviously, you want to take good ones and not just chuck them up. But, the reason I take them is because I believe I can make them. It’s been that way my whole career and that won’t change based on three games. You just can’t let that get under your skin.”

They won’t. They’ll keep shooting, because they have to. But no matter what else the Warriors are doing, winning is profoundly daunting proposition with Curry and Thompson this far off their games.