As part of his daily routine, Warriors coach Steve Kerr does not just watch the film. He also reads.

So when he was not identifying endless defensive miscues the Warriors (3-2) have made to open the 2017-18 season, Kerr came across a specific interview that he considered applicable to his team’s current predicament. The article involved Houston pitcher Justin Verlander, who had summed up the Astros’ playoff run this way.

“I think the mental focus is just another level,” Verlander told reporters. “I think it’s something that would be easy to say, ‘Why don’t you just do that every game?’ It’s unsustainable throughout the course of the regular season. If you were that mentally focused, you’d just burn out. It’s just another level.”

So while the Astros are mentally focused when it matters, the Warriors are trying to avoid expending too much energy when it does not. That has left Kerr with a tight-rope to balance as the Warriors enter Friday’s game against the Washington Wizards (3-0) at the Oracle with lots of misgiving about his team’s focus level and effort.

“If I asked our guys to bring the same level of focus right now as I did against Cleveland in June, we’d be done by December,” Kerr said after practice on Thursday. “We’d have to find something else to do. All of our guys would be fried and burned out. It really is about developing good habits and building up to the point where the energy of the latter part of the season and playoffs can take over. The energy and emotion will be there. But early in the regular season, it has to be focused on the details.”

The Warriors’ failure to focus on those details have amounted to big things.

WATCH: Steve Kerr: Mental conditioning lacking in Warriors

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr says the team’s physical conditioning is getting there but its mental conditioning is a work in progress with several mistakes in the win against the Toronto Raptors.

After preaching for his team to strive to stay in the NBA’s top five in defensive efficiency, the Warriors have ranked 25th out of 30 teams in total points allowed (113.6). They have fared 20th in fouls per game (22.8), as two of the losses coincided with Warriors guard Stephen Curry drawing a lot of whistles. Though the Warriors showed relative improvement with fouls in Wednesday’s win over Toronto (15), the Raptors won on the glass, 42-37.

“That stuff doesn’t require huge energy. It requires focus,” Kerr said. “There’s no way you can bring that kind of energy for nine months. But the focus, that’s where you build the foundation. If you can do that, we’ll be fine.”

The Warriors have not shown that just yet, though.

Kerr observed there’s “a game-long epidemic of just losing focus.” He has not found that trend to apply to when the Warriors nurse double-digit leads or to start the first and second half. It has happened because of external events, such as Draymond Green’s knee injury that shifted the tide in a season-opening loss to Houston. It has happened internally as the Warriors collectively fault their communication skills.

To fix that, Kerr expressed hope his players start mimicking former NBA player Kevin Garnett, who chirped and shouted on defense. He did that endlessly to his opponents to scare them. He did that endlessly to his teammates to make them feel more engaged.

“It’s intimidating for the offense where everybody is talking and chirping and pointing their fingers and pointing out where they should be and communicating,” Kerr said. “There’s an energy that flows from that. When you’re standing there silently, it’s the opposite. It gets stagnant.”

And as a result, Kerr sees the Warriors playing “pick-up ball” where they have still excelled through talent and offensive brilliance.

“Our guys can score at will, sometimes. But trading baskets is not a formula for success,” Kerr said. “Trading baskets for us might equate to a lot of regular-season wins. But it’s not going to mean anything in terms of winning a playoff series.”

Still, to win a playoff series, Kerr remains aware that pushing on the accelerator right now might just lead to a car wreck.

“I didn’t expect us flying out of the gates. I think this year’s team will be better than last year’s team,” Kerr said. “The focus has to catch up to where we need t be eventually. Just a question of when that happens. I’m not going to force it. It’s way too early to try to force it.”