With the Golden State Warriors having lost three straight games and four out of their past five, Steve Kerr admitted the team is going through their most difficult stretch since he joined the franchise in 2014.
"Oh, yeah," Kerr said. "But I've had a dream run for four and a half years. We've had such a charmed existence the last four seasons. This is the toughest stretch we've been in.
"This is the real NBA. We haven't been in the real NBA the last few years. We've been in this dream. And so now we're faced real adversity and we got to get out of it ourselves."
The Warriors are facing interpersonal issues between Kevin Durant and Draymond Green while also playing without Stephen Curry and Green.
Kerr remains outwardly confident.
"Everyone has to come together and you can't feel sorry for yourselves," Kerr said. "You have to commit to fighting and executing, competing for 48 minutes. I thought we did that for maybe 24 minutes tonight. We had a couple good stretches. I was very proud of the group in the second half, got us back in the game and they fought.
"It's not enough to do that for a stretch and then go through a bad spell. You got to be competing the whole time and playing with some poise and playing with a purpose. I didn't think we did that tonight."
"It was a terrible road trip as far as wins and losses," Klay Thompson said. "But we're obviously short-handed. I'm proud of the way the guys fought. Besides the Houston game, I feel like either game could have gone either way; unfortunately, it didn't. It's been a challenging week on all fronts. The best thing for us is just to get away a little bit [Monday], regroup, take it back home and just have fun, play with that joy."