Thompson: Warriors keep slipping in the well, and they’re almost out of jumps

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SAN FRANCISCO — A frog is at the bottom of a 10-foot well. Every time it jumps, it gets up three feet. But then it slips and drifts back two feet.

The pressing question: How many jumps does it take to get the Golden State Warriors out of the Play-In tournament?

“A week or two ago, sixth seed was the motivation,” Steph Curry said after Monday’s 119-112 loss to the New York Knicks. “Now I (couldn’t) care less about where we’re at. The consistency of how we’re playing, that’s the most important thing. Because honestly, who cares what seed you are? If you play like we did tonight — six, seven, eight, nine, 10 — whatever it is, doesn’t matter. You’re not getting very far.”

The frog in the well is a math riddle.

It’s also a philosophical exercise in momentum, the tugging war between propulsion and regression. Why can’t the slide backward be prevented? At some point, the onset of another setback should become palpable, prompting an alternative approach. At some point, ability, experience, desperation, force of will and luck figure to align and provoke an explosion out of the tedium. Or perhaps this is just what it is, a recurring date with the frustration of relapse.

After seven leaps and slips, the frog would be seven feet up. Most importantly, it can see the top of the well. The color of the sky is bright when you’ve been at the bottom of the well. The frog has an extra motivation on this next jump. It can taste liberty. And, for the love of Miss Piggy, this frog will go all out on that eighth jump and get out of its cycle of mediocrity.

Every time you think the Warriors have reached that point on the journey, they put up a momentum-killing dud of a performance or a brutal squandering of a victory in hand. They’re good enough to rout Milwaukee, beat Boston, go into Indiana and handle the Pacers. Their 18 road wins are tied for 11th most in the league. But whatever progress they make seems, almost inevitably, interrupted by an ill-timed loss.

The Warriors had a massive road win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. They came home fully healthy with three winnable games. A four-game win streak would’ve been huge. Plus, the Knicks came to town down two starters: Julius Randle (shoulder) and O.G. Anunoby (elbow). Jalen Brunson did what he does, scoring 34 points on 25 shots. But the difference? The Warriors got worked by Miles McBride, whose 29 points were eight above his career-high. They couldn’t match the presence and energy of Josh Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein.

“We weren’t good enough,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s that simple. We just did not play well enough. It’s disappointing because we’ve got these three home games here this week and we wanted to get off on the right track. But that’s a really good team, and they just outplayed us.”

Add this to a long list of bad losses this season, defined by the Warriors’ ability or not to maximize their talent, experience and depth. If we were ranking the 10 worst losses of the year, this Knicks L would make the list because of where the Warriors are in the season, what was right there for them to seize and how well they just played in L.A.

You know what, let’s do it.

No Warriors defeat this season was as painful as their loss to the Nuggets on Nikola Jokić’s buzzer-beating 3 from midcourt in early January. (Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)

1. The collapse vs. Denver, Jan. 5

“That’s the first one that came to mind,” Curry said.

It was easily the biggest collapse of the season. The Warriors led by 18 at home with 6:51 left. They scored four points the rest of the way, a pair of Curry free throws and a Trayce Jackson-Davis layup. And, of course, in the gut punch of the season, Nikola Jokić hit a 40-footer off the glass at the buzzer.

2. The collapse at Sacramento, Nov. 28.

This was the first late meltdown by the Warriors, in the final game of the In-Season Tournament. They blew a 21-point lead but still led by five with 58 seconds left. A turnover by Curry followed by a turnover by Draymond Green led to five points by Malik Monk, the last a game-winner. Curry’s attempt at a game-winner failed miserably.

3. Uninspired L to San Antonio, March 9.

Curry was out two Saturdays ago. But still, the Warriors lost to the worst team in the West, at home, in a game they needed. The Spurs didn’t even have Victor Wembanyama. You can’t get outworked by Jeremy Sochan and Malaki Branham when you’re gunning for the No. 6 seed.

4. Both heartbreaks to the Thunder, Nov. 18 and Dec. 8.

Twice, the Warriors hit game-winning shots, or what should’ve been game-winning shots. At Chase Center on Nov. 18, Andrew Wiggins hit the go-ahead 3 with three seconds left. Wiggins also was late on a switch and gave up the game-tying 3-pointer to Chet Holmgren moments later. In OKC on Dec. 8, Steph Curry made the clutch 3 to put the Warriors ahead with 19 seconds left. Green then fouled Holmgren shooting a 3 with seven seconds left. Holmgren made all three. In both games, the Warriors lost in overtime.

5. Outworked at Memphis, Jan. 15.

If McBride’s random career night felt familiar, it’s probably because it’s happened several times to the Warriors this season. One memorable example came on MLK Day. GG Jackson II, a rookie in his second game playing real minutes, scored 23. Vince Williams Jr. scored 24. And 5-foot-9 undrafted point guard Jacob Gilyard was at times unstoppable. The Warriors lost to a Grizzlies team that didn’t have Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Steven Adams or Marcus Smart.

6. Blown lead to Clippers, Dec. 2.

Another 20-point lead squandered. Not only were the Clippers struggling at the time (8-10) and the Warriors had just beaten them two days earlier in San Francisco, but the Warriors had a 20-point lead with 22 minutes remaining. Yet they managed just 20 points in the fourth quarter. They made one field goal over the last 4:26. Still, they led by four with 38 seconds left but lost the game on a Paul George 3-pointer. Every clutch play, the Clippers made.

7. Home loss to Chicago, March 7.

Losing to the Bulls isn’t so bad. Chicago has some players and has pulled off some big wins. But at home, coming off a near-perfect performance against Milwaukee, the Warriors did not bring it. Especially not defensively. The defeat was compounded by Curry’s ankle injury in the fourth quarter, which led to two more losses in the next three games.

8. Destroyed by the Raptors, Jan. 7.

Remember the long homestand bridging December and January? The Warriors avoided a near-horrible loss to the Pistons, who at the time were 3-31. They had a chance to close the home stint strong, get back over .500. Instead, they got destroyed by Toronto, a losing team. This was after the trade that brought R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley from the Knicks and before Pascal Siakam was shipped to Indiana. The Raptors, stocked with long athletic wings, won the second quarter 40-21 and led by 27 at the half. It was one of the more uninspiring efforts of the season by the Warriors.

9. Then by the Pelicans, Jan. 10.

The Warriors had two days off to stew in the throttling by Toronto. They had a good West team coming to Chase Center. This was the time to bounce back, right? Nope. They got smoked again. The Pelicans led by 19 at the end of the first quarter and never looked back. winning 141-105. The Warriors finished the seven-game homestand 2-5.

Capping off the season of fits and starts, of hurdles cleared and batons dropped, the Warriors started their latest homestand Monday with a loss to the Knicks. New York is a good team. Losing to the No. 4 seed in the East isn’t inherently bad. But, man, they were beatable. And the Warriors are running out of time to escape the well.

Can they still put together that epic surge before it’s too late?

“Absolutely,” Curry said. “Sorry to give you a short answer, but absolutely.”

Well, if you’re feeling froggy.