Kurtenbach: The Warriors are at a crossroads, but the Dubs’ big problem has no easy fix

The Warriors’ choke-job loss to the Kings Tuesday night not only knocked Golden State out of the NBA’s in-season tournament — it also threw the team’s entire regular season into question, too.

Blowing a 24-point lead will shake you. Letting an opponent come back from a five-point deficit with 50 seconds to play — a point at which the start of which you hold the ball — will rattle you.

And doing it all amid a legitimate slump — the Warriors have only two wins in their last 10 games? Well, that can break a team.

“This team is cooked. They’re not a contender,” TNT commentator Charles Barkley said after the game.

Barkley’s reaction was knee-jerk, but it wasn’t unfounded. What have the Warriors shown in recent weeks to make you believe there are still good times ahead?

Steph Curry in existential thought after Tuesday’s game. That doesn’t happen after just one loss:

“It’s going to be tough to swallow just because we should have won that game,” Curry said. “We played well enough to win for 40 minutes, and knowing the stretch we’ve been on, we were really motivated.

“I think we all got to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out what we individually can do better.”

The season is only a fifth over, but this is a critical juncture for the Warriors. Success is fleeting in this league. Great runs — especially the kind the Warriors went on — rarely have long tails.

Mediocrity, however, has a funny way of sticking once it arrives.

The Warriors’ run of greatness didn’t expire Tuesday. I still believe it’s far too early to declare a team led by Steph Curry “cooked” for this campaign, much less in perpetuity.

At the same time, there’s no easy fix for what ails Golden State.

A tweak to the rotations won’t create a new paradigm for this team. Klay Thompson is never going to play like an All-Star for an extended period again. Andrew Wiggins might be playing himself into bonafide game shape, but he’s shown he’s uncomfortable with being a true No. 2 to Curry. And there isn’t a young player on this team that’s poised to break out and become a star.

And no, there’s not a trade this team can make that will turbo-charge this once-great (perhaps unparalleled) winning machine.

This is what the Warriors have, and even with all the caveats around this roster, I still believe it’s ample.

Part of the Warriors’ problems is that the stars have not aligned this season.

Wiggins took over a month to catch up to the game’s speed after a reportedly lax offseason.

Thompson is still living in the delusion that he can be an All-Star-caliber player again.

And while those two issues are playing themselves out, the absences began.

Curry missed two games, starting Nov 14.

That was the same day Draymond Green put Rudy Gobert in a headlock and earned himself a five-game suspension.

And when Green returned Tuesday, Chris Paul picked up a left leg injury and missed the final three quarters of the game.

Such are the perils of an old roster, but that’s why the Warriors have a deep bench.

I’ll repeat it: This Warriors roster is good enough to make the playoffs. We’ve seen that quality shine already this season.

And once that tournament — the real, post-season tournament — starts, the veteran Warriors could have a clean shot at victory in the West.

But that’s months from now, and clearly, there is no guarantee this team will play enough quality basketball between now and then.

We saw Golden State’s day-to-day problems play out unambiguously on Tuesday.

It’s a tale as old as time — an issue in Oakland, San Francisco, and everywhere else the Warriors have played:

Turnovers and fouls.

These are the issues that can be solved. And if the Warriors don’t fix them, the other, bigger issues will define their season.

The Warriors turned the ball over 18 times in Sacramento, including two huge turnovers in the final minute. Still, they built a massive lead in the first half, when they turned the ball over 11 times.

The Warriors can manage some turnovers if they play good defense — and vice versa.

But the Warriors did not play good defense in the second half Tuesday.

Sacramento shot 20 free throws in the third quarter alone and 30 in the second half. The Warriors were lucky the Kings only made 19 of them.

It might be the season of giving, but cumulatively, the free points and free possessions for the Kings proved too much for the Warriors.

Of course, there was a time when the Warriors had so much more talent than the competition that they could be loose with possession and sloppy on defense.

That margin has not existed for years, yet the Warriors have not tightened up their operation.

Perhaps it’s an impossible ask — this team can never do it. Being fast and loose is in the team’s DNA, and as the collective telomeres shorten, everything else left but the biological need for sloppiness.

But while injuries (and Draymond suspensions) are unavoidable, I still have to believe the Warriors have the agency to limit turnovers and fouls.

Curry isn’t going to carry this team to 50 wins on his own. Paul can’t be the only thing holding off a barrage of turnovers. Green can’t be solely responsible for the Warriors’ defensive play.

The Warriors were built to be a team — a collection of many quality parts, spearheaded by a selfless superstar in Curry. They’re not playing team ball as of late.

They were built to be smart. We saw it early, but I haven’t seen any savvy in weeks.

This Warriors team was built to win games.

But so long as they keep failing to do the little things right, the big issues — and all the negativity that comes with them — will persist.