Matt Steinmetz

Sometimes it’s easy to look back on a season and pinpoint or figure out exactly when something went wrong … or what went right. The problem is, when you’re actually going through that period, in real time, during the season, you may not actually realize it.

Last year, the Warriors lost to the Cavaliers in seven games, and their enduring an autopsy that goes on to this day. You can look back and find some causes for the defeat, or so it goes.Clearly Draymond Green’s one-game suspension altered the series, but that’s not what we’re getting at.

We all knew when that happened, trouble was brewing for the Warriors. Not just because they’d be without Green for a critical Game 5, but because we knew something else was happening: The players who remained were getting worn out

When the Warriors won 24 games last year to start the season, it got the year off to a resounding start. They kept up a record-setting pace as the season went on at some point the idea of winning 73 games — or one more game than the 1996-97 Bulls (72-10) — came into the equation. Whether they talked about it or not or whether it entered their minds only once in a while, that notion likely affected the way they played.

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Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson entered Sunday’s game mired in shooting slumps. It’s not that they’re officially of those slumps now, but both made enough shots against the Knicks to lift the Warriors to a 112-105 victory Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

Curry had 31 points and Thompson 29, and between them the two went 9-for-22 from beyond the arc. We’ve seen those two combine to shoot much better than that over the years, but against the Knicks that was a marked improvement over what each had been doing. And it was good enough against the Knicks, a non-playoff team in the Eastern Conference. Enough said.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame show on 95.7-FM: Warriors at New York.

Curry had gone 4-for-31 from 3-point range (12.9 percent) over the past three games and Thompson had gone 7-for-33 from beyond the arc (21.2 percent). On Sunday, Curry made 5-for-13 from 3-point range and Thompson 4-for-9 from deep.

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It’s all about the loss of Kevin Durant right now if you’re a Warriors fan — and the questions that come out of it.

How long exactly will Durant be out? Can the Warriors hold off the Spurs for the best record in the Western Conference and home-court advantage throughout the postseason? How much will Stephen Curry have to change his game from now until Durant returns? How many minutes can newly acquired Matt Barnes gobble up? Will Durant be the same player after he comes back?

The bottom line is that the Warriors’ season has changed in a big way, and it’s because Durant suffered at Grade 2 MCL sprain and tibial bone bruise in his left knee against the Wizards on Monday.

The Warriors have gone from the prohibitive favorite to … well, let’s wait and see.

On the “NBA This Week” we talked all aspects of the Warriors, and other NBA topics with Celtics analyst and former NBA assistant coach Brian Scalabrine and the Washington Post’s Tim Bontemps.

Link to Hour 1 of the “NBA This Week,” with Scalabrine interview.

Link to Hour 2 of the “NBA This Week,” with Bontemps interview.

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