Steve Kerr and Warriors may need to ditch seven-game lineup experiment

The Golden State Warriors fell to their third-straight loss on Wednesday night, with their offense failing to execute in the closing stages as their comeback effort went to waste against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

An 19-point first-half deficit turned into a three-point lead for the Warriors with just under six minutes remaining, but they desperately missed 2x MVP Stephen Curry as the Thunder escaped with a 105-101 victory.

Steve Kerr still has decisions to make on the starting lineup

With Curry on the sidelines due to a knee issue, Steve Kerr went small with Draymond Green at center, allowing the returning Jonathan Kuminga to take a starting role alongside Brandin Podziemski, Lindy Waters III and Andrew Wiggins.

Kuminga had an up-and-down performance which almost sums up his entire career to date. The 22-year-old went scoreless in the first and fourth-quarters, yet was the arguably the biggest reason Golden State got back into the game with 19 combined points in the second and third periods.

As important as Kuminga was in playing over 28 minutes, Kerr revealed after the game that Curry's expected return on Saturday will likely see Trayce Jackson-Davis return in a more traditional starting lineup.

"We definitely will play that smaller lineup with JK at the four and Draymond at the five plenty coming up, but my gut would be to keep starting the way we've been starting with Trayce and Draymond," Kerr said after the four-point defeat.

But while the Kuminga vs. Jackson-Davis debate may dominate discussion, Kerr may have a bigger issue with the form of his starting shooting guard in Waters. The 27-year-old has now started seven games since the season-ending injury to De'Anthony Melton, having initially vaulted from entirely out of the rotation in the three previous games.

Waters has averaged 7.4 points over the last seven games, shooting 37.3% from the floor and 34.3% from three-point range. That's not ideal given his primary role is as a shooter, with the fourth-year guard going 1-of-7 from deep against his former team on Wednesday.

It might be time for Kerr to end the Waters experiment, at least within a starting role. The issue is there's no one really putting their hand up to replace him -- Moses Moody and Brandin Podziemski have each been inefficient and haven't contributed to winning during the same period, while Gary Payton II leaves the team with too many non-scoring options.

Buddy Hield has proved himself best in a spark plug role off the bench, and Kerr doesn't appear keen on going back to the original starting lineup with Andrew Wiggins at the two alongside Kuminga, Green and Jackson-Davis in the front court.

Either way Kerr and the Warriors have an issue they need to address, with Melton's absence continuing to be a glaring one that's starting to become an ongoing problem.