You can point to pertinent causes. Injury. The pall of Draymond’s blow-up with Durant—and his reported vicious schismatic suggestion that Durant should “leave.” The difficulty in playing back-to-back. The difficulty of playing 3 road games in 4 days—and the difficulty of playing 3 road games in 4 days under pall and with injury.
I watched last night’s game with particularly perceptive longstanding observers of W’s basketball. One of whom asked me afterwards, “What will be your theme tonight?”
After thinking a moment, I said, “W’s basketball.”
What I mean is this. That the W’s under Steve Kerr have established a beautiful definitive identity with clear principles of execution.