Instruction: Are the Golden State Warriors a good basketball team?

Response: The Golden State Warriors won the most recent NBA championship in 2022.  In the last 8 years they reached the NBA finals 6 times, won 4 championships, and set the record for regular seasons wins with 73.  Stephen Curry, the Warriors best player, also won the NBA Most Valuable Player award twice during that same span.  This success is generally regarded as a dynasty, a term used to describe a dominating team over a long period.

However, this season the Warriors have struggled.  Despite winning the most recent NBA championship only 9 months ago, near the end of this regular season they are only a few games above .500.  Their current record is 42-38 as of today, which is only the 13th best record in the NBA out of 30 teams.

The reason for the drop is not clear.  The Warriors have the same starting lineup as last year with 4 All-Stars and when playing at Home their record is among the best in the league.  However, when playing on the road the Warriors have one of the worst records at 9-30.  A big factor in their road losses is lack of good defense, as opposing teams score considerably more points against the Warriors than when the Warriors play at home.  There seems to be a lack of focus and intensity from the Warriors players on defense in these away games and in the NBA, where the margin between winning and losing is very thin, that has seemed to make the difference.