PORTLAND, Ore. — Stephen Curry could not believe what he was hearing.

On a night when arguably the NBA’s all-time greatest shooter hit 12 3-pointers in a game for the fifth time in his career, and scored 48 points, Curry was stopped in his tracks when told how many starting lineups the Warriors have used over the last few weeks.

“You said nine starting lineups?” Curry responded after a 136-131 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. “I didn’t know that.”

With Draymond Green back on the floor Sunday night after missing the last week and a half because of a foot injury and a team excused absence, Golden State used its 15th different starting lineup of the season.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr has been trying to find the right combinations all season, but the momentum the Warriors have been seeking remains elusive. Sunday night’s game, which included another sublime Curry performance, was just the latest example of that. It left a frustrated Kerr taking the blame for a team that came into the season with championship aspirations — but now finds itself with a 13-14 record two months into the schedule.

“We got to find a way to connect the game, that’s my job,” Kerr said. “I’m not doing my job well this year. We have enough talent to be much better. We’re losing all these close games. So I got to find a way to help these guys.”

There are an array of reasons the Warriors find themselves in this predicament. Curry, who often projects a sense of calm amidst whatever storm it is that Golden State is dealing with, noted one obvious problem while discussing why the group doesn’t have the continuity they’ve been searching for.

“Obviously I missed five games (with a quad injury),” Curry, who has missed nine games in total this season, said. “Draymond missed however many, Jimmy’s missed a couple, Al’s missed a good amount, Melt just got back. It’s a revolving door, every team goes through that from time to time. Whether it’s forced or not, I don’t know how many teams are successful throughout 82 with that as a part of their identity. So I’m hoping we can correct that and have a sustained run of games where you know who’s out there, you know what the rotations are.”

While injuries have been a major problem for the Warriors, the issue that is just as large is that the younger players the group has been banking on to take another step haven’t done so yet this season.

Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga have all shown flashes of solid play at various points, but have not been able to maintain a high level. Kuminga has gone from the starting lineup to start the season to his third straight DNP-coach’s decision on Sunday night. There are an array of different reasons the Warriors find themselves in this predicament, but as Kerr outlined before the game, one of the biggest is the lack of separation within the roster.

“It would be nice to be able to do that,” Kerr said, when asked about having the same lineup. “But I don’t feel like we’re in position to do that given Steph’s absence, Draymond’s absence, Pat (Spencer’s) emergence. Searching for different combos. A lot of guys being in the same vicinity in terms of lack of separation between who’s playing well, who’s playing poorly. Every night feels a little bit different so I don’t think we’re there yet.”

Far too often this season, no matter which players have been on the floor, they haven’t been able to find the chemistry that defined strong Warriors teams of the past. It’s why Green was passionate in his defense of Kerr while he was asked about the idea of continuity after Sunday’s game.

“It’s key, for sure,” Green said. “You want continuity. But you got to find it first. We have not played great. We’re 13-14. So nothing has said that it should be continued. I know everybody want to point the finger at Steve and say, ‘Ah man, he’s doing this, he’s doing that.’ There’s no continuity. But s—, if you’re 13-14, you continue doing the same thing you’re doing, keep getting what you’re getting. So you got to try different stuff.”

For his part, Kerr reiterated before the game that he didn’t settle on a set starting lineup last season until the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler just before the trade deadline. The Warriors finished off the regular season in style, closing 23-8, thanks in part to the stability and continuity that Butler’s presence brought to the lineup.

The larger question that Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy and his staff have to face as the trade deadline looms on Feb. 5 is whether or not the organization believes the answers are on the roster even if the group ever does finally get healthy?

There isn’t a sense of panic yet within the Warriors’ organization, but if they keep dropping close games like these, there will be soon.

“You can’t find continuity until you find stuff that works,” Green said. “And then it leads to wins. And right now we haven’t done that. So there’s no chance of finding continuity. You’re not just gonna start the same lineup to keep it familiar. If you ain’t f–ing winning, you ain’t winning. You got to change something. So until we figure it out, he’s going to be changing s— because we got to figure it out.”