Warriors face must win in Game 5 against Thunder

Reporting from OAKLAND —  Steve Kerr glanced at the bank of cameras facing him inside the Golden State Warriors’ practice facility Wednesday and joked that he couldn’t curse because it would be picked up by a live feed.

There were plenty of reasons to let the four-letter words fly.

Kerr’s defending NBA champions, only weeks removed from the most dominant regular season in league history, are one loss away from becoming a flop of historic proportions after getting pushed around in the Western Conference finals.

Stephen Curry appears gimpy, Draymond Green seems to have gotten inside his own head and no one seems to have any answers as the Oklahoma City Thunder prepare for their first chance to close out the series in Game 5 on Thursday night at Oracle Arena.

Kerr did offer a strong rebuttal for a Yahoo Sports report that a person close to Curry said the two-time most valuable player, who is coming off a right knee injury, was “70% at best.”

“Is that sources with knowledge of the team’s thinking?” Kerr asked facetiously. “That’s my favorite expression these days — sources with knowledge of the team’s intimate thinking. Well, who would that be? I don’t know.”

Kerr wasn’t finished on the subject.

“Nobody has said anything about Steph being 70% to me,” he said. “Our training staff, relatives, friends, sources with knowledge of our team’s thinking — nobody has told me he’s 70%, so apparently they told the media but they haven’t told me.”

Curry insisted he was “fine” after Game 4, though his back-to-back clunkers in the two biggest games of the season would suggest otherwise. Kerr said if there was any issue, it was Curry finding his rhythm again after having sat out more than two weeks earlier in the playoffs.

“Is he bothered a little bit? Perhaps by the layoff,” Kerr said. “I mean, he went three weeks without basically playing a game. So he may just not be quite where he needs to be, but it’s not an injury.”

The Warriors also need to solve the curious case of Green. One of the league’s best all-around players has been terrible across the board over the last two games, both losses, compiling a combined minus-73 in the box score. At least he’s willing to admit as much.

“Our energy goes as my energy goes and I’ve been awful,” Green said late Tuesday night after a six-point, six-turnover performance during the Warriors’ 118-94 loss in Game 4.

Green doesn’t do slumps, confounding those wondering what’s gone wrong.

“Usually it’s one game and he bounces back and plays great,” Kerr said. “This time it’s two, so he’ll figure it out, we’ll figure it out and he’ll play much better.”

The Warriors’ troubles transcend the shortcomings of their top two players. Center Andrew Bogut has been a non-factor because of fouls and a small-ball lineup that decimated the rest of the league has been badly outplayed by the Thunder’s own “little guys.”

When Oklahoma City features a lineup with Serge Ibaka at center and Kevin Durant at power forward, alongside guards Russell Westbrook, Andre Roberson and Dion Waiters, it has been a plus-49 in this series, according to ESPN. Thunder Coach Billy Donovan’s only regret is probably not having used it at all in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Roberson has been an unexpected nuisance after being essentially left out of the Warriors’ defensive game plan. He was strong in every category in Game 4 with a career-high 17 points to go with 12 rebounds, five steals, three assists and two blocks.

“It’s one thing to play off a guy, it’s another thing to forget about him,” Kerr said. “We were forgetting about him, and that can’t happen.”

Kerr made a case for the Warriors winning the series and it didn’t include the fact that teams holding a 3-1 lead in conference finals have won 37 of 39 times. Golden State is the defending champion, Kerr pointed out, and is playing at home, where it has gone 46-3 this season.

If the Warriors can protect their home court in Game 5, Kerr contended, one could argue they would put some pressure back onto the Thunder.

“Momentum can shift quickly in the playoffs,” Kerr said. “Let’s take care of business at home and get some momentum back and we’ve got a chance.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch