Sooner rather than later, the undermanned Warriors were going to feel Stephen Curry’s absence. Up against the injury-ridden 76ers, the Curry-less Golden State Warriors hit an unexpected franchise low. He’s going to be missing at least two more games, but fans are praying he cuts his back short to salvage the team.

Steph’s absence is probably hurting Steve Kerr the most because this is a personal matter. The Warriors combined for 10 points in the first quarter against the Sixers tonight. Since Kerr joined the franchise as head coach in 2014, this is the first time the team has had such a poor quarter.

The Dubs were down 10-30 in the first quarter and have still not recovered. They stand at 53-71 with over three minutes remaining to halftime. Already, their shooting woes are jarring.

They don’t have Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green was ruled out midgame, but De’Anthony Melton has had 14 points since returning and in his debut this season. Pat Spencer and Moses Moody are fighting to keep them in the game.

But most of their teammates have only had single digits. They’ve managed to improve and close the gap within two points after halftime. Yet it’s looking like the Warriors’ game to lose.

Fans might be seeing the Dubs’ shooting at its sloppiest. Some feel Kerr has not strategized for Curry’s absence and others just want the point guard back to handle business as usual.

Stephen Curry-shaped gap in Warriors offense

The Warriors avoided a very big setback when Steph Curry was officially diagnosed with a left quad contusion and muscle strain after an incident during the Rockets game on November 26. That will entail a shorter break. He missed two games after that and is slated to miss the remainder of the Dubs’ road trip.

They’ve not been looking good since then. Especially with Butler’s hurt knee. This might be the start of the saddest movie titled, “Life without Steph Curry 🚬”

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The poor first quarter will especially haunt them. “10 points? I’ve seen baseball innings with more scoring than that. Absolutely taking the mickey with that effort,” a fan remarked. Curry’s injuries are more frequent than we’d like, but fans have been critical of Kerr and his players rarely making up for his absence.

While Steve Kerr is dealing with an undesirable record in his career, he may be able to pinpoint what exactly led up to this moment. Brandin Podziemski missed a wide-open shot that could’ve landed him on ‘Shaqtin a Fool’ if Shaquille O’Neal was on duty tonight. Instead, social media is reminding him of his ambitious statement the other day.

Apart from stinging reminders of Podz’ own words, “‘I wanna be better than Steph Curry’ -Podz 💀💀💀💀💀😭 crying crying crying crying crying,” he has to deal with sarcasm like, “He ready to take stephs starting spot 🔥”

The Warriors came pretty close with 14 seconds left in the game, a single point lead of 98-97. That’s cutting it so close that one said, “Without Steph they are a G League team.”

The star youngsters, Will Richard and Quinten Post, are having one of their slow nights. De’Anthony Melton played an impressive 20 minutes in his return from ACL surgery. Meanwhile, Podziemski had six points in all of 20 minutes. That begged fans to question the coach, “Kerr love Podz so much 😆 0/5 threes lmao.”

From a slow start to mounting injuries and evident shooting struggles, the Warriors came very close. Yet there was no answer to VJ Edgecombe when he sank a shot with 0.6 seconds left on the clock.

The Warriors lost 98-99, another loss without Steph Curry. Kerr now has to fix the gaps in the offense before facing the Cavaliers on Saturday.