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The Golden State Warriors have their backs to the wall after their defeat in Game 5 at the Houston Rockets. They have to win the next two games if they want to reach the finals for the fourth time in a row, but their offense in particular raises doubts.

“I think we’re in a good situation.” These words came at the press conference not from Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, but from Steve Kerr, whose team had just lost the so important game 5 and now has to win the next two games to reach the finals for the fourth time in a row. “That may sound a little crazy, but that’s the feeling I just have,” the two-time championship coach went on to explain.

It is at least a peculiar view, because much of what Golden State had awarded this season and in recent years could only be seen in individual sequences. Instead, the ugly face of this talented team appeared more often. In less than four minutes, the Warriors had again accumulated three completely unnecessary ball losses, which was still bearable in the Regular Season, but had already hurt the Warriors in game 4.

In the Oracle Arena there were 15 turnovers, this time even 18, a massive imbalance compared to the 10 Rockets’ ball losses. “That broke our necks,” Kerr had to admit. “Many arose without any pressure from the enemy. “Nevertheless, our offense today was much better with more ball movement.”

But even this statement is only partially true. Houston became better at controlling the Warriors’ offense from game to game and gave a defensive rating of 97.2 in game 5. By comparison, in the Regular Season, the Warriors scored 112 points out of 100 possessions.

Golden State had only 72 attempts from the field at the end of the game, so few were in the Kerr era only three times before, two games were in November 2014 shortly after his inauguration. Too often the ball was simply placed in the hands of Kevin Durant, who played a lot in the post office in the fourth quarter, which D’Antoni certainly liked.

Of course KD are able to hit these litters, but since Golden State had too little shooting on the field, the defenders like Trevor Ariza or P.J. Tucker, who already defended the final MVP sensationally well, kept getting a lot of help. Durant scored 29 points but also needed 22 litters.

“It’s a good option to pass the ball to Kevin Durant in the post,” Kerr defended his offense. Nevertheless, Kerr talked several times during the game to his star that he could also find the free players. Durant finished the game without Assist. Instead, KD shot four tickets in the final section and scored only 2 points on the line. “I can feel it when the double team comes, I just have to make the right plays,” he explained afterwards.

That Houston can allow himself to double was once again due to the missing shooting. 38.5 percent is a good figure, but 26 attempts are too few if only 34 points are scored in the zone at the same time. Eventually, mathematics lets you down against this Rockets team.

That’s why Kerr surprisingly relied on Quinn Cook in Crunchtime, a real shooter, who had only seen garbage minutes in the show so far. With him the Dubs had better spacing, even though Cook could not place any of his three longballs in the basket.

So also 40 seconds before the end at 94:95 from the champion’s point of view. Due to Paul’s injury the Warriors had a higher number situation and got a free roll for Cook, he could not use it. But nobody blamed the rookie. “He had a good litter, but unfortunately he didn’t fall,” Durant said.

Draymond Green was also unlucky in the final phase, dribbling after Trevor Ariza’s miss, so the Warriors could only put the ball under their own basket. As a result, it was Green who tripped and lost the ball.

“We were gonna give the ball to Steph, but he played it to me. Unfortunately, I lost control, that’s the way it is,” said Green, who made six turnovers over the 48 minutes and was therefore not uninvolved in the Warriors’ bug festival.

Speaking of Steph: Whenever Curry threw the offense, good things seemed to happen. The Rockets did not switchte the Pick’n’Roll with Curry in parts and from it often developed good Offense. With 22 points (8/17 FG) and 6 assists, the playmaker was still one of the better Warriors players in the attack, but only took 17 throws. In the first quarter, the chef had to wait for eight minutes for his first throwing attempt, whereas Durant already had 7 on his account at that time.

Nevertheless, Green also concentrated more on the positive things. “We moved the ball better, I think we learned a lot today.” If anything, they were just small jumps. After 14 assists in game 4, there were 18 this time, which is still significantly below the season average of over 29 direct templates.

But at least the defense should give courage, because this was on a high level again. Houston was kept below 100 points and just 37 percent out of the field, James Harden and Chris Paul scored just 11 of their 40 litters and almost every field goal was hard work. The bearded man also shot 11 tickets from a distance, not a single attempt was possible.

“We will continue to defend like this,” Green announced. “Their hits were all very tough, and we can live with that.” Andre Iguodala could be another strong defender to return as Houston tremble for Chris Paul.

In principle, the Warriors made two bad games, in which they lost with a difference of 7 points, which they could just as well have won. As you know, they have not done so and for the first time since Durant’s signing in the summer of 2016 they have their backs to the wall. In the Conference Finals against the OKC Thunder in 2016 there was a series deficit, at that time the Dubs were still overturning it.

Maybe that’s why the Warriors’ participants were so optimistic. “We know what we’re capable of,” Green said on the record. “If you’ve ever experienced something like this, you know what it needs. We know what things we need to improve and we will.”