In middle of identity crisis, can Warriors’ five-game trip help them find out who they are?

SAN FRANCISCO — Coach Steve Kerr thought the Warriors needed a wake-up call — something to shake them out of their streaky cycle.

That might’ve come this week.

The Warriors closed out the first half of the season with about 12 minutes-worth of momentum. After trailing by 27 points in the third quarter Tuesday against the star-less Phoenix Suns, the Warriors found life in the fourth on both ends of the floor. They were aggressive and disruptive on defense, forcing the Suns into 12 turnovers in the final frame.

“Hopefully this is the jolt that we need to get ourselves going because it’s been this first half of the season has been full of stops and starts,” Kerr said after the loss.

This upcoming road trip will show whether that lesson sticks.

The Warriors survived 11 games without Stephen Curry, going 6-5 over that stretch. But now, with him and Andrew Wiggins back along with Andre Iguodala also being mixed into the fold, Golden State needs to get the ball rolling.

That’ll have to start Friday on the road, a place where wins have been as hard to find as a TV remote in a couch cushion.

While the Warriors 20-21 record appears balanced, the home-and-away splits are about as lopsided as they could be. Golden State is 17-5 at Chase Center this season, but league-worst 3-16 away. That’s a .615 differential between the Warriors’ home and road winning percentage, which would be the third-largest differential in league history if the season ended today.

It’s a head-scratching discrepancy. The Warriors have typically been a strong road team during this golden era of championships (the two down seasons aside.) But it’s been a totally different story this season.

A lack of a consistent identity, devotion to defense and not enough mental fortitude are part of the reasons why they’ve struggled, and that has to change if they want to start making headway in the standings.

The Warriors showed progress at the beginning of their most recent homestand, which they opened with five straight wins without Curry and Wiggins before dropping the last three games. Golden State showed another level of grittiness; the team was locked in and played together as they scratched and clawed their way to victories.

“We have to be honest with ourselves about the details [of] what makes a winning team [and] remind ourselves what that is and hold ourselves to that standard,” Curry said.

That starts on defense. Golden State was one of the hottest teams in the NBA at the beginning of last season because of its relentless, team-approach to that side of the ball. But the commitment and cohesion on defense hasn’t always been there this season.

The Warriors post the fourth-best defensive rating in the league in the Bay, but there’s a major drop off once they head out of town. Their 120.1 defensive rating on the road is the second-worst in the NBA, behind only the Spurs. The reigning champs are also surrendering a league-high 123.8 points per away game.

The Warriors will play five games in the next eight days, which includes two consecutive sets of back-to-backs that are separated by two off days that will include a trip to the White House. They’ll start in San Antonio, where they could be part of history with the Spurs set to break the league’s single-game attendance record at the Alamodome, which can seat more than 64,000.

The 13-29 San Antonio Spurs are a team the Warriors should beat on paper — they cruised to a 37-point victory over Gregg Popovich’s squad in November — but it wouldn’t be the first time this season Golden State blew a game it should’ve won against a low-grade opponent, especially on the road.

After that, they’ll play the Chicago Bulls on Sunday, Washington Wizards on Monday, Boston Celtics on Thursday and Cleveland Cavaliers next Friday.

It would be beneficial if the Warriors could get at least one of their three injured frontcourt pieces back at some point during this road trip to partially relieve workhorses Draymond Green and Kevon Looney, but nothing is guaranteed. Jonathan Kuminga (sprained right foot), James Wiseman (sprained left ankle) and JaMychal Green (infection) were all ruled out for Friday.

Curry has faith the Warriors can flip the script on their road woes over the next week as long as they use the end of their last game as a springboard heading into this business trip.

“We all kind of found our rhythm throughout that fourth quarter stretch that we can hopefully bottle up and take on the road with us,” Curry said. “We have to play desperate on the road to beat the teams that are coming up on the schedule and again, rectify the way that we’ve been playing throughout the season on the road.”