Brian Windhorst slams Warriors' frailties as Steph Curry & Co. fall to Spurs

Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors suffered a huge blow to their playoff push after losing to the San Antonio Spurs 114-111 on Wednesday. A dagger 3-pointer by former Warriors wing Harrison Barnes sealed the win for the Spurs and dropped the Warriors to a play-in spot in the West.

In the wake of their loss, Brian Windhorst left some scathing points of criticism against Steve Kerr's team and their approach.

The Warriors only have two games left to play in the regular season, and one of those pits them against the Los Angeles Clippers who find themselves in a similar predicament to Curry & Co. The loss against a short-handed Spurs poses questions about the capabilities of the team and Windhorst's assessment of the team suggests at the team being exposed at the worst possible time.

"The difference between the two and the eighth seed in the West is negligible," Windhorst said. "All of those teams have flaws that allow them to be beaten. Clearly the Warriors are flawed, look what happened last night.

"But, the way the Warriors are going to try to pull this off, they're going to try to play with a very small lineup. And, I just think, what you're going to ask this team to do to make a long playoff run, ...I think it's going to be energy sapping for them. ... I think they need to be taking load off instead of adding load on."

While small ball has worked to be extremely successful for the Warriors in the past, with the advancing age of the likes of Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler, Windhorst believes continuing to demand so much off the team by compensating size could hurt them more than it has in the past.

With a lack of size in the roster, the Warriors may not be able to switch things up for what's left of the regular season and the playoffs either.

Steph Curry and the Warriors face the prospect of playing four crucial games in a week ahead of the playoffs

While the top seeds have time to rest and recover, falling between seeds 7 and 10 presents the challenge of the Play-in tournament and having to play elimination games right before the playoffs begin, making the task of facing a higher-seeded team in the first round of the playoffs even more challenging.

Steph Curry's Warriors may have to play up to four more high-intensity games ahead of the playoffs and could be well worn out by the time the playoffs commence.

A win on Wednesday would have seen them finish as high as fourth in the West, but they effectively made things extremely hard on themselves by failing to beat the 13th-seeded Spurs.

The Warriors would need Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler to be at their very best to avoid the Play-in tournament - Source: Getty

The Warriors are set to play the Portland Trail Blazers and the LA Clippers in their remaining regular-season games. If they finish in the Play-in spots, they would have to play again on April 15, and if they fail to qualify in their first attempt, Curry & Co. would have to play again on April 18 to guarantee a spot in the playoffs.