NBA 2018-19: Are the Golden State Warriors indeed Steph Curry's team?

Stephen Curry suffered a groin strain during the Warriors' unimpressive loss to the Bucks last Thursday and has been out of live action ever since. During his absence, a lot has happened to the defending NBA Champs, both 'physically & mentally'.

The Warriors have lost six of their last 10 games, with the most recent one to Oklahoma City Thunder being their 4th consecutive loss. They have slipped down to 12-7 on the season, currently placed at 5th in the Western Conference behind the Grizzlies, Clippers, Trailblazers & Thunder.

Even though Curry was seen moving well during a post-practice shooting drill, Steve Kerr recently informed that he would not be made available for this week. He rehabbed with team assistant Bruce Fraser, head trainer Rick Celebrini & former Suns great Steve Nash lately, but couldn't convince Coach Kerr regarding his match fitness.

This only means that Warriors would have to make-do without him for a few more games & the way things are looking right now, that's the last they'd want to do.

The 2-time MVP might not be the best player on the Warriors lineup but you can bet your bottom dollar that he's the most important one for sure. With Curry's 29.5 points per game in the mix, Dubs started their season with a 10-2 record. Just to put things into perspective, KD has played 45 games without Curry in the GSW lineup, and the win-loss record stands at 22-23 currently.

The stat just goes to show how indispensable he is to the Warriors' rotation on the floor. His ability to space the floor and make long-range 3s is being missed dearly by everyone in the Oracle Arena. Coupled with internal feuds, players getting fined and inevitable injuries to pivotal roster spots, the team's recent performances have laid the platform for one of the worst(if not THE worst) stretches in the last five seasons.

The most recent 28-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder was an exclamation point to the team's downcast run. Klay Thompson had a pretty interesting stat line to share after the miserable loss,

"It wasn't pretty tonight, and it hasn't been these last four games," Thompson said. "If you want to take a positive out of it, that's the first time we've lost four games in a row under Steve (Kerr). That's pretty incredible."

Well, factually, he's right.

The Warriors hadn't endured a four-game losing streak during the regular season since dropping four in a row from Feb. 26-March 2, 2013.

Without Curry, Dubs have to face Portland next, and we all know how badly a season can change if they find themselves in 5-game losing streak hole. Mentally, that would pressurize Curry to run through the motions quicker than he should, and make the coaching staff impatient about his return, which might subsequently lead to further deterioration down the season when it would actually start to matter.

And GSW wouldn't want to harm the only unanimous MVP in the history of the game in any remotest way possible.