Even though the Golden State Warriors entered their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder undefeated without Stephen Curry playing a single minute, the numbers when he wasn’t on the court tell a pretty telling – and all too familiar – story. Story.

In 783 possessions outside of garbage time, the Warriors have scored a measly 105.7 points per 100 possessions without Curry on the court. According to Cleaning The Glass, that would be the equivalent of the 28th ranked offense in the NBA. This is evidence of the problem they’ve always had: the lack of a viable scorer behind Curry who could act as ballast when he’s on the bench or, more importantly, when he has to miss games.

The story was no different tonight against the Thunder – meaning the Warriors only had one chance, against such an elite team with an elite defense (first in the league in opponent points per 100 possessions) and an elite shot creator to win Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should establish himself in the half court and ensure plenty of possession. That proved to be a difficult task early in the game, as the Thunder were able to put up 39 points in the first quarter to the Warriors’ 23. Those 39 points allowed came to a terrible 150 points per 100 possessions.

The good news is that after allowing 39 points in the first quarter, the Warriors were able to hold the Thunder to just 66 points in the following three quarters. By the end of the game, they were able to reduce the points per 100 possessions allowed to 104 points per 100 possessions – which was the best defense in the league (tied with the Thunder’s points per 100 possessions allowed this season). Defensively, a switch was flipped in the form of diversified coverage, increased energy and a sense of urgency that may have been heightened by the loss of their superstar.

That possession down at the 8:26 mark of the third quarter seemed otherwise unremarkable, but the tenor of the Warriors’ defense in the second half changed when Jerry Stackhouse made a switch: full-court ball pressure flowed into a 2 -3 zone into the half court:

Stackhouse pushed the right buttons and his players responded with effort and vigor after two games in which their defense fell apart in the second half. This was perhaps most evident in the way they defended in scramble situations where they had to take turns playing. The Thunder – who are good at moving the ball and giving everyone on the field good looks – saw their windows close almost immediately:

The golden equation for the Warriors this season — especially in this Curry-less version — has been getting stops, running in transition and creating offense against an out-of-place defense, which has been the case whenever they’ve been deployed this season , the halfcourt had a lot of success (84.8 points allowed per 100 halfcourt possessions). An easy way to take this metric out of the equation is to simply have them avoid defending in the half court as much as possible:

It will also help tremendously if they can get the best version of Draymond Green on defense. Green’s value doesn’t just lie in his ability to roam the field and communicate – his ability to play multiple coverages, recognize which one needs to be played at any given time, and execute accordingly is unmatched. The more committed and effective he is as a defender, the more likely the rest of the defensive machinery is to follow his lead:

However – and this is where the bad news comes in – the Warriors were only allowed to score 103.1 points per 100 possessions the entire game, no doubt due to Curry’s absence and the lack of a consistent secondary scorer to score (for yourself and for teammates) without much schematic help. While Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga can certainly fill this role through their ability to apply pressure at the rim, deficiencies (such as lack of a reliable handle) prevent them from ever filling this role to the highest degree.

Kerr had to help them get to the rim by creating downhill situations for them. For Wiggins, it was all about getting him moving off the ball to create a line of attack:

For Kuminga, this led to situations where the defense didn’t know what coverage they wanted to play. A reverse pick-and-roll leaves Gilgeous-Alexander hesitant, not wanting to switch to Kuminga. This allows Kuminga to attack the edge with an open lane:

However, such incidents weren’t enough to give the Warriors the juice they needed to keep the Thunder at bay. They remained scoreless from the 5:45 mark of the fourth quarter until the 20-second mark – while the Thunder, unable to score much themselves, were able to use Gilgeous-Alexander’s talent as a scorer to make the difference.

While the defensive silver lining is cause for optimism — and even though Curry won’t be out for too long, considering he’s expected to play Saturday against the Phoenix Suns — the Warriors have to deal with the problem of not having anyone , who can do that can create scoring opportunities beyond Curry in an emergency. Curry is 36 years old and is likely to miss a lot due to pain. He cannot handle the weight of the goal alone. For the Warriors to get to the next level, they need someone who can balance the defense without the need for a schematic crutch.