SAN FRANCISCO – The fun the Warriors enjoyed, winning 10 of their first 12 games, was largely the result of excellent defense, an acceptable assists-to-turnover ratio and fantastic 3-point shooting. They deserve that 10-2 record.

Since then, they have lost eight of 12 games, with declines in all three of those categories. The 3-point shooting rate has dropped from third to 14th in the NBA.

Can this squad recover? Or will general manager Mike Dunleavy and his front office staff need to step up their intensity for a trade?

Or maybe this is something that will fade in the next few games. A break-in.

“Nope,” Lindy Waters III said Friday after practice. “No.

“The ball will go in. You’re going to make mistakes night to night, defensive strategies, anything you can consider. From the outside you might think it was a break-in.

But like I said, we were there in every single game. We had the chance to win a lot of games. But I would never call it a burglary.”

Waters joined the Warriors over the summer as a branch of Oklahoma City’s core of 3-point shooters was torn away. He got off to a great start, but has noticeably cooled down. The 6-foot-6 winger shot 40.7 percent from deep through the team’s first dozen, but has been at 30.6 percent since.

Waters has plenty of company in the team’s recent slide. Let’s look at the designated 3-point shooters on Golden State’s roster:

Stephen Curry, the all-time 3-point king, was at 43.2 percent through ’12 and has since dropped slightly to 39.8 percent.

Buddy Hield, one of the NBA’s true 3-point shooters, fell from 46.9 percent in the first 12 games to 37.6 percent in the next 12. Still respectable, but below his norm and a significant drop from one initially untenable number.

De’Anthony Melton shot a respectable 37.1 percent but lasted 11 games before a knee injury ended his season.

Moses Moody shot 45.8 percent in the team’s first 12 games and has since shot 23.5 percent.

Jonathan Kuminga, who was advised last summer to refine his 3-point shot, struggled from the start, shooting 31.7 percent in the first 12 and 30.2 percent since.

Draymond Green isn’t one of the league’s sharpshooters, so his 45.2 percent rate in the top 12 was never going to last. Since then it has been at 29.7 percent.

Only two players, Brandin Podziemski and Andrew Wiggins, can now block 3-balls more efficiently than before. Podziemski had a hit rate of 19.1 percent in the first 12 games and 31.6 percent since then – but an excellent 41.2 percent in his last five games. Wiggins was at 37 percent in the first 12, but has since increased to 47.4 percent.

Despite the recent inefficiency hurting this approach, coach Steve Kerr believes the team still has enough good shooters to compete at the highest level.

“I think we have a lot to shoot for,” Kerr said. “We try to find combinations that work. There are times when we put a combination on the floor that’s maybe a little too heavily focused on offense or defense, and now we’re stumbling a little bit.

“We’re deep, but we still need to make the full 48 to balance our rotations.”

When Melton went down, Kerr realized he had to choose a backup starter at shooting guard. He could have gone with Gary Payton II, a great but difficult triple. There was Podziemski, whose threes are starting to come together but are vulnerable on defense. Kerr initially turned to Waters, someone who is on the fringe of the rotation but could provide a good balance of offense and defense.

All three had the opportunity to start alongside Curry, with Payton being the youngest. When he’s on the field with Kuminga and Green, the Warriors have three players who don’t command the defender in the field.

And given how the Warriors opened the season, it seemed like they had enough long-range shots to play Four Out, with at least four players able to shoot from distance with ease. They were finally ready to join the rest of the NBA.

However, the equipment no longer worked as well as it had at the beginning. There is certainly no surplus of shooters.

“You can never have too much,” Kerr admitted. “I think the loss of Melton was a big part of what we’ve seen in the last few weeks because what you really need is a two-way game. You need a shooter who can also defend, so you don’t have to make decisions based on offense or defense.”

This was Melton, a quality defender and a solid shooter from beyond the arc. He was certainly a “perfect fit” for what Golden State had in mind.

There could be an ideal replacement somewhere in the league, but he is not in the current squad.

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