In case you haven’t heard, the Golden State Warriors are pretty good. Gone are the days of a team that relied solely on shooting and thought the rules of defense didn’t apply to them. Oh, they can still shoot. Even better than the days when Monta Ellis led the team. It seems like forever ago when Ellis was a Warrior but that’s the NBA for you. Now led by, arguably, the greatest shooter the NBA’s ever seen, Steph Curry, the Warriors are the most dominant team in the NBA. By season’s end, they could be the most dominant team in history, at least on paper.
As it stands, the Warriors have an astounding record of 44-4. Some quick math for you: That’s an average of only one loss for every 11 wins. In a league full of the greatest basketball players in the world, these kinds of things don’t happen. The defending champs have not lifted their feet off the gas since winning it all in 2014-2015 after defeating Cleveland in the NBA Finals. In many cases, teams that win the championship the year prior don’t show the same hunger they did before. It’s just human nature sometimes. For Golden State, you would think they lost in the Finals the way they’ve been playing.
In 1995-1996, the Chicago Bulls set a regular season record with 72 wins and just 10 losses, on their way to their 4th championship in team history. It was thought that their record would never be broken but records are meant to be broken and the Warriors are just the team to do it. Some critics would argue that it’s still too early to say but sitting at 44-4, the Warriors are well beyond pace to break it. The truth is that no other team in the league is on their level. Some may argue the Spurs with a 39-8 record to this point, but after last week’s 30-point blowout loss in the Bay, it’s clear the Spurs have taken a backseat to the younger, more athletic Dubs squad. Granted, Spurs center Tim Duncan didn’t play in the big showdown, but with such a wide margin of victory, it’s doubtful his presence would’ve made a difference in the outcome. The Bulls were in the same position when they made history. The Orlando Magic were the only real competition that the Bulls had at that time and they swept the Magic out of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Both the ’96 Bulls and the present-day Warriors have one thing in common: unselfishness. Sure, the Bulls had Michael Jordan and the Dubs have Curry but it’s not nearly enough to become the dominant force their respective teams have been without the proper pieces around them. Jordan had Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman with a plethora of others to step in when necessary. Same goes for Curry who has fellow Splash brother, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. Even greats like Jordan and Curry have off nights. Just last night, Curry didn’t have one of his better games against the New York Knicks so someone else had to step up. Draymond Green has been the other primary factor so far this season as he’s been a monster night in and night out. Thompson had a slow start to the season but his defense is exceptional and he has the ability to shoot lights out just as well as Curry. The buck doesn’t stop there, though. Just last year in the Finals, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr brought Andre Iguodala off the bench into the starting lineup. The move turned the series around and eventually led the Warriors to the title since Cleveland had no answer for him. Iguodala was named Finals MVP, an unimaginable feat before the series started. It goes back to the unselfishness of this team. The only thing selfish about the Warriors is their desire to win. Whoever’s back they have to lean on any given night is irrelevant to them.
One major cause for concern in the Warrior’s quest of history is their lackadaisical approach to sub .500 teams. The same week that saw the Warriors blow out the Spurs by 30 also saw them needing a Harrison Barnes three with less than a second left to beat the worst place Sixers, who currently sit at 7-41. It’s funny how that works but this could be the Warriors Achilles heel. They already have losses against the Bucks and Nuggets, both of whom are well below .500 and likely to miss the playoffs this season. If the Warriors want to break the Bulls record, they will need to play near perfection for the rest of the season. They still meet San Antonio on three more occasions before the postseason and those meetings will not likely end in blowout victories like last week. They also have three meetings scheduled with the Thunder and two with the Clippers. The Warriors are better than all of these teams but if they perform the same way they did against Philadelphia, they will assuredly come away with losses and their quest for history will be in jeopardy.
There are still some that don’t believe the Warriors have what it takes to break the NBA record. Old school players like Charles Barkley will tell you that Golden State doesn’t light a torch to the ’96 Bulls team. That may hold truth but we’ll leave that to a NBA2K simulation game to decide. His argument is that the Warriors are “too small” to run with the ’96 Bulls and wouldn’t be able to rebound against the king of rebounds, Dennis Rodman. It’s a valid point from Barkley but if they did play and the Warriors were draining 3’s all night, what exactly would Rodman be rebounding? The truth is Barkley was a great player but that doesn’t make him a great evaluator of the game. Also, he’s seemed to have it out for the Warriors for some time now. It could be after his “guarantee” in 2007 that the Dallas Mavericks would beat Golden State in the first round blew up in his face. Barkley may be right about the Bulls having a better team but the Warriors don’t play that Bulls team and if you want to take the advice from a guy who can’t say “terrible” correctly, be my guest but I’ll take my intuition over his.
Another factor I’m sure Barkley and other critics are not considering is head coach Steve Kerr. Kerr was a valuable player on that Bulls team that won 72 games. How amazing would it be for him to lead the team that breaks that record? He has just as much reason to chase history as his players. It is because of Kerr’s history with the Bulls that, I believe, he won’t rest his players like some think towards the end of the season to prep for the playoffs. Even though Kerr had to sit out the majority of the first half of the season, assistant head coach Luke Walton filled in beautifully. Walton earned Western Conference Coach of the Month for November even though none of the Warriors wins were credited to him. However, Walton’s leadership set this team up nicely to make history and Kerr will have a lot to thank Luke for should that occur. In hindsight, I believe this team has what it takes to make history. If they continue to play the way they’ve been playing there’s no reason they can’t mark their place in NBA history.
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