The 120-99 loss to the Boston Celtics must’ve been the figurative cold shower of reality, Because now, Steve Kerr has officially abandoned the pretense of a late-season surge. Dealing with a roster decimated by injuries and mounting losses characterized by mental lapses and defensive breakdowns, Steve Kerr is being real about the Golden State Warriors’ chances. While he’s still waiting for Stephen Curry’s return, the head coach warned his players that their current level of execution is nowhere near the standard required for postseason survival.

Only a day earlier, Kerr had an optimistic outlook about Curry’s recovery from runner’s knee. After another loss, Kerr’s message was blunt. This team is stuck in the play-in tournament, and without a radical shift in discipline, their stay there will be short-lived.

“What I’m most interested in right now is, can we prepare ourselves for the play-in? Like, I mean, we’re going to be in the play-in. We know that, one way or the other,” Kerr told reporters in a tense post-game press conference.

The coach expressed deep concern over the team’s inability to translate morning shootaround instructions to live-game action, when it comes to basic defensive coverages. “We gave up like three back-cuts early on after we had a shootaround this morning going through those very actions, and we completely messed up coverages three times in the first quarter. Cannot do that. Cannot happen. You want to win a playoff game, you better be locked in.”

Kerr emphasized that while the effort is present, the technical execution is failing at a critical juncture. “The effort’s there, but the execution’s not yet,” Kerr added, noting that the team is currently taking “one step forward, one step back.”

Stephen Curry is currently on the road with the team while working with the trainers. He’s ramped his workouts and looks close to returning to the court. But from his head coach’s lens, even with Curry, even middle of the pack is an impossible goal for this team.

Steve Kerr reset the Warriors goals for Stephen Curry’s return

Yesterday, Kerr confirmed that Curry worked out in the Boston facility and aims to return in the rotation during this road trip. It appears that having Steph Curry behind the scenes makes a big difference as opposed to playing the main game without him. While relaying this update on Willard & Dibs yesterday, Kerr also declared that quitting is not an option. At this point, Kerr raised the alarm to the remaining active players that they cannot simply wait for Curry to save the season.

Their goal remains to create a stable environment for Steph to return to.  Kerr claimed that their previous goal was to catch up with the Nuggets in the sixth spot. But the sixth seed is 9.5 wins away or “out of the question” as Kerr said. “If we can string together some wins—you know, try to get to eight—that’d be ideal. Get two cracks at it,” Kerr noted. The toughest competition to this new goal would be the Clippers.

But securing the play-in spot is only the first step. Eyeing Cury, Al Horford, and Moses Moody’s returns, Kerr said, “If we’re prepared when they get back, we can do some damage. We can go on a run, but we can’t have game-plan mistakes. We’ve got to build better habits—you know, boxing out, taking care of the ball in transition, being more efficient.”

For now Kerr’s reset the goals for the team. It’s no longer about Steph Curry’s return, but surviving the season.