SAN FRANCISCO – About 47 hours after an “embarrassing” performance, as Stephen Curry simmeringly described it, the Warriors received an invitation to shake off the shame and ended up bathing in a tub of cold humiliation.

The Miami Heat came to Chase Center reeling on Tuesday. Their leader, Jimmy Butler, is out due to a team-imposed suspension that comes with three straight losses, the most recent being a double-overtime loss Monday at Sacramento. For a hungry hunter, the heat seemed to make vulnerable prey.

The Warriors kept missing their shot badly, missing until all they were left with was the furious emptiness of a 114-98 loss that dropped their record to 18-18 and made their NBA playoff hopes seem like absurd fantasy.

“(We’re) mad,” Curry said. “You’re trying to figure it out. Everyone in the dressing room is doing a bit of searching and trying to understand what’s going wrong and why we can’t get off to a better start. There are moments in games where you bounce back but can’t make consecutive stops. Poor possession on offense affecting our confidence, body language and mood.

“There’s a lot going wrong, but what should we do about it? We have to dig deep, figure it out and believe we are a good team. We need to stop talking about it and around it and just fight our way through it.”

The Warriors shot 40.8 percent from the field against Miami. That’s bad enough. What’s worse is that they shot 28 percent from distance. Curry was 8 of 17 from deep — he scored a game-high 31 points — but his teammates were 6 of 33.

“It seems like both sides have problems,” Curry said. “They’re probably related. When you make shots, your confidence and belief that you can win the game usually increases. It helps you play defense. When you lose that spirit, it becomes glaring how bad we can be sometimes.”

When the Warriors, who trailed by double digits most of the evening, got within 87-86 on a technical free throw from Curry with 9:34 left, he sensed an opportunity. He reached into his pocket, grabbed the magic he so often finds, and came out empty-handed.

The Warriors missed their next three shots, two from Curry, and Miami dropped a 3-ball each time, pushing the lead back to 10. The Warriors got within seven with 6:54 left, but were outnumbered 15-6 the rest of the game.

“It wasn’t a poor performance game,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We had 28 assists and 10 turnovers. We were just 14 of 50 from the field. We missed a lot of shots.”

Although Golden State’s .500 record is the epitome of mediocrity, with Kerr on the bench and Curry as an active player, these Warriors are waist-deep in their longest slump ever. Their record since Nov. 15 is 6-15. They came home on Dec. 23 with a favorable schedule, with eight of the next nine games played at Chase, and hoping to find their feet again. They went 3-5.

“Frankly, I think we’re suffering from a crisis of confidence right now,” Kerr said. “You can see it. You can feel it. I don’t mind misses, but I do mind when misses affect defense and attitude. We’re feeling depressed right now and there’s no room for self-pity in the NBA – in life in general, right?

“You can’t let disappointment dictate our approach to the game. We have to do the opposite. We have to do the opposite. We need to bring more fire. We have to outdo our opponents when things don’t go our way.”

That doesn’t happen. The Warriors were crushed at home by the Kings, losing by 30. They then lost to a team that ran a 58-minute marathon on Monday. The Heat outscored the Warriors in three of four quarters – with the 10-point lead in the fourth quarter being the decisive one.

It’s clear that the abhorrent performances are taking a toll on Curry. They also get under Kerr’s skin.

“Several no-shows in a row,” Curry said. “And the difficult thing is that these are winnable games against teams who, for whatever reason, are roughly in the same place in the table when they play us. Even Miami played a double overtime game last night and came in here and whipped us. It’s just not a great feeling.”

It’s a terrible feeling. And now the Warriors are on their way. They will have four more games under their belt before their return on January 18th. It has never been harder for this group to win even one game.

At the bottom we meet rocks. And feel the cold.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast