The Warriors on Tuesday night got a microscopic view of the truth, seeing and feeling enough to know they are two levels below the NBA elite and perhaps three levels away from being they team they believe they can be.

Even with the return of Stephen Curry, after a three-game absence, the Warriors were so powerless against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder that a 126-102 loss tells only a fraction of the story of where the Warriors are three weeks into the 2025-26 season.

To see the Warriors now, by turns listless and ineffective, is to wonder if that 23-8 surge – the post-Jimmy Butler III bump – to close last season was a mirage, a short-term elixir rather than a lasting remedy.

“Everybody was committed to winning, and doing that any way possible,” Draymond Green told

See Full Page