Kurtenbach: Steph Curry was brilliant in Game 4. His Warriors teammates failed him again

LOS ANGELES — I will not write off the Warriors, who are now down 3-1 in their Western Conference Semifinals series with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Not yet, at least.

Because until the Warriors are actually eliminated, with the final shovel full of dirt hitting the top of the Warriors’ coffin coming in the form of a fourth loss in the series, I refuse to believe this dynasty — undefeated in the Western Conference playoffs since 2015 — is dead.

But I won’t lie to you, either. Things are looking pretty grim for the Dubs.

And while we’re telling unsavory truths, here’s another: The Warriors find themselves in this possibly (likely?) season-ending predicament because Steph Curry’s teammates failed him in Game 4.

He was failed by Klay Thompson, who only scored nine points and took several bad shots in crunch time. He was failed by Jordan Poole, who was downright unplayable on Monday. He was failed by Draymond Green (five turnovers) and Andrew Wiggins (as many turnovers as defensive rebounds), too.

Curry wasn’t perfect on Monday — he shot 3-for-13 from beyond the arc, including two go-ahead shots in the final 30 seconds — but in a game the Warriors needed to win to avoid the brink, he nearly carried his team over the finish line, registering a triple-double with 31 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists.

He had that look in his eye — the kind we saw in last year’s NBA Finals and in Game 7 of the Warriors’ first-round series with the Kings.

He was the best player on the floor Monday, by a wide margin. Even his defense was excellent.

That should have been good enough.

But the other Warriors didn’t pick up even the tiny amount of slack Curry left them. Professional basketball might be defined by superstars, but it’s still a team game.

“We just try to make it easier for him,” Gary Payton II said.

Instead, they’re making it harder.

In Game 4, the Lakers’ LeBron James and Anthony Davis had each other, Austin Reaves (21 crowd-pleasing points), and Lonnie Walker IV, a role player who scored all 15 of his points in the fourth-quarter points to lift the Lakers.

Curry had second-year, often-marooned-on-the-bench forward Moses Moody and Payton, who vomited mid-game, as his top support.

That’s been the story of this series — and the postseason — for Curry.

The playoffs are all about two-way players, and the Warriors have lacked them.

Thompson has been a one-way player in this series — offense or defense, but never both. Monday, it was just defense, and that ebbed, too.

Jordan Poole, meanwhile, was a no-way player as of late. Warriors coach Steve Kerr probably played him too long, and he saw his last playing time in the middle of the third quarter.

Green was solid for most of the game, but his turnover on the Warriors’ final possession was unforgivable. That was not the time to make a pass to no one.

And Wiggins, one year after controlling the postseason, is not doing the same in these playoffs.

The margin for error for this Warriors team has been slim all campaign.

Now it’s zero. Another loss and it’s season over.

To add insult to injury, the Warriors were unable to finish their post-game, too.

The Lakers’ arena was evacuated during Curry’s press conference Monday. As soon as Wednesday, the Warriors might tell a good portion of their roster to leave.

After all, if this series proves to be the end of the Dubs’ undefeated run in the West, those in the front office looking for that kind of shake-up will have ample ammunition.

But this series is not yet over.

While these Warriors are inferior — except for Curry — to the 2016 edition of the team, that record-setting squad did come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the Western Conference Finals.

That series played out in the exact same order as this one, though one could argue the situation was direr for the Warriors in 2016 — they lost Game 3 by 28 points and Game 4 by 24.

And just like in 2016, the Warriors will play Game 5 at home.

Win that one, and the pressure falls back onto the Lakers, whose top players, James and Davis, are already showing plenty of fatigue late in games.

It’s a tall order — perhaps a foolhardy one — but the Dubs have run out of alternatives. A team that has dabbled with brinksmanship all season — mostly because of boredom — will need to lean on that experience to do the incredible.

Note that I didn’t call it “the impossible.”

“Just focus on winning Game 5 and take it from there. You can’t fast-forward to the end,” Curry said. “I have confidence in our ability to take the good things from tonight and protect our home court… if we’re going to get out of this hole, we all have to play better.”