There’s no doubt about it now. These Warriors are broken. Outwardly, they’re exhibiting all the signs of togetherness that marked their championship runs in three of the last four seasons. They have no choice but to, of course, if only to try to convince others — and, most importantly, themselves — that they’ve moved on from their very public infighting. There was the show of friendship between central figures Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. There were the on-record pronouncements of head coach Steve Kerr, fellow All-Star Steph Curry, and even owner Joe Lacob indicating the tiff was already in the past. Yesterday’s setback to the Spurs, along with the two others right before it, prove otherwise, however.
True, the Warriors have been plagued by injuries to Curry and Green, and figure to be much better when they return to action. That said, it isn’t as if they’ve suddenly turned into doormats. They still have Durant and Klay Thompson spearheading Kerr’s topnotch system, typically more than enough to upend most opponents on most nights. Not so of late, though; since the fateful spat at the end of regulation against the Clippers last week, they’ve been uneven at best, with their intrinsic talent overcome by listlessness. They survived the lowly Hawks, and then got blown off the court by the Rockets before succumbing to the Mavericks.
At this point, the Warriors have become confidence builders — for the competition. Yesterday, they were fodder for the Spurs, who had hitherto lost three straight, and five of the last six, matches. And it bears noting that during their run of futility, they have failed to come close to approximating their vaunted offensive efficiency; they’re norming the lowest in assists since their 2015-16 campaign, brought down by anemic totals during their skid.
To be sure, Green engaging in verbiage and Durant displaying sensitivity is nothing new to the Warriors, hence the confident predictions on the ship being righted with time to spare before the contests truly count. They may well be on the mark; they’re defending champions for a reason, and they’re too good, and too experienced, not to understand the stakes involved and the benefits to be derived in subscribing to the common cause.
Then again, the current circumstances are unlike any the Warriors have already gone through, and they’ve gone through a lot. Never has Green been suspended for being, well, himself. Never has Durant gone nearer to leaving than staying. And never has management seen fit to take sides. The good news: the season is young. The bad news: anything can happen from here on. They’re the defending champions, so everybody else needs to go through them. The flipside is that they don’t really need to look beyond their own backyard to find the biggest threats to their reign at the top.
 
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.