The last time we checked in on the Golden State Warriors' standing in various NBA Power Rankings, Steve Kerr & Co. were riding high, having won 10 of their first 13 games.
At that time, the Dubs were averaging 119.6 points per game, the fourth-most in the league, and were allowing 110.1 per contest, the sixth-fewest.
Since that sizzling start, however, Golden State has cooled considerably, winning just four of its last 10, a stretch that included a five-game losing streak. In the first two games of that skid, the Warriors snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, blowing a 17-point lead to the San Antonio Spurs in a 10-point loss and then giving up an 18-point advantage to the Brooklyn Nets in an eight-point defeat.
To be fair, Golden State has dealt with several injuries to key contributors in recent weeks. But the struggles can't all be put on that, as the game that both Steph Curry and Draymond Green sat out last week against the Houston Rockets was the night they ended the losing streak, as Kerr got big nights from Jonathan Kuminga and Andrew Wiggins.
The simplest way to describe this recent lull is that some of the shots they were hitting early in the season just haven't been falling as frequently, which is why the Warriors now rank 11th in the NBA in scoring at 114.1 points per game.
Up until his 27-point outburst against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night, Buddy Hield, who was one of the big reasons for Golden State's success early on, had faded a bit, which is why the overall bench scoring has been down.
As for the defense, that's actually improved. The Warriors are still allowing the sixth-fewest points in the league, but the total has dropped to 109.2. So, at least there's that.
At 14-9, Golden State is still in decent shape as this team sits atop the Pacific Division and is in fifth place in the overall Western Conference standings. Now, let's have a look at where the Dubs stand among the various NBA Power Rankings.
Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided’s daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with a friend! If you don’t like The Whiteboard, share it with an enemy.
Before we get into the roundup, it should be noted that a pair of these NBA Power Rankings are a few days old and were released prior to the Warriors' eight-point over the Wolves on Sunday night.
Given the analysis from ESPN and CBS, though, it seems Golden State would be roughly where they're listed now.
NBA.com: 6
Over at NBA.com, the Warriors currently rank sixth, up two spots from the week before.
Writer John Schuhmann took a similar approach to what we did in our intro above, noting how Golden State's scoring has been down. He just took the per-100-possessions route, noting how the Dubs ranked fourth in the league in their first 12 games (118.4) but rank just 28th over their last 11 (105.8).
He also took a little dig at Kuminga, citing the fact that he has the fifth-worst true shooting percentage (49.1%) among 96 players with at least 100 shot attempts in their last 11 games.
ESPN: 7
ln their most recent rankings, ESPN has Golden State in the No. 7 slot.
This list was released prior to the Warriors' matchup with the Rockets last Thursday, so it's a little dated, but they noted how Golden State had blown a seven-point lead in the final three minutes to the Denver Nuggets last week in a four-point loss.
While obviously not as big as the leads they blew to the Spurs and Nets, this is still a problem that needs to be figured out.
CBS Sports: 9
Colin Ward-Henninger of CBS Sports has the Warriors in the No. 9 spot in his most recent NBA Power Rankings.
And like the rest of us, he had no choice but to mention the recent five-game skid, using a fun little cliche in his analysis, saying, "The honeymoon period, as they say, is over."
He also mentioned how Kerr could soon go away from the deep rotation he's been using. But if Sunday night's matchup with Minnesota is any indication, that's not the case just yet. Even with Wiggins sidelined, 11 different Golden State players saw the floor, eight of whom logged at least 20 minutes.
Yahoo! Sports: 8
Yahoo! Sports has Golden State ranked eighth and kept their analysis of the Warriors short and sweet: "Nice response win over Minnesota after just losing to the Timberwolves."
Prior to Sunday night's win over the Wolves, of course, the Dubs took a 107-90 loss to Minnesota on Friday night, the 90 points being their lowest offensive output of the season.
Golden State returns to action on Tuesday night in an NBA Cup quarterfinals matchup with Houston.