Warriors not so golden as they take on Knicks

With Stephen Curry in a rare shooting slump and the Golden State Warriors on an even rarer losing streak, the NBA leaders are facing adversity as they visit the New York Knicks today.

Stephen Curry screamed, turned and kicked the nearby wall, disgusted by another missed jumper. It was just practice and most of his other shots went in, so there was little reason for concern.

But if he keeps misfiring in games and the Golden State Warriors keep losing them, there might be.

With Curry in a rare shooting slump and the Warriors on an even rarer losing streak, the NBA leaders are facing adversity — at least by their standards — as they visit the New York Knicks on Sunday.

Curry is 4 for 31 from 3-point range through three games of the Warriors’ road trip, with most of the last two games coming after Kevin Durant was injured. The Warriors found a way to win the opener in Philadelphia — when Curry missed all 11 attempts behind the arc — but they then dropped games in Washington and Chicago to end their NBArecord streak of regular-season games without consecutive losses at 146.

“We haven’t lost two in row in a long time obviously and we’ve been in a rut on this trip in general,” coach Steve Kerr said after practice Saturday at a court in the Manhattan building where the players’ union is headquartered. “We’re not making shots, but we’re also well aware that this is just a blip on the radar screen. We’ll be fine and I’m not concerned at all. We just have to play better.”

Klay Thompson is also struggling, and the Splash Brothers really dried up Thursday, going a combined 3 for 22 on 3-pointers in a 9487 loss in Chicago. But the Warriors don’t seem stressed and don’t think defenses are crowding the guards more than normal without having to worry about Durant.

“We’ve had plenty of openings and creating decent shots, just haven’t gone in in the last three games,” Curry said. “But that happens as you go through a long season, you just have to fight through it and not let it affect how you play. Obviously if we make a couple more shots in Chicago the game’s a little different. Philly it was a struggle but we found a way to win, so just got to stay on the mission of letting the offense create good things for us and still have confidence to knock down shots.”