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Warriors Run to 73 Wins Is Tough

Written by Sam Amick at USAToday.com

When the Golden State Warriors’ loss on April 5, 2016 becomes nothing but a footnote in their history, the truth about that night of surprises will be crystal clear.

It meant far more for the upstart Minnesota Timberwolves than it did for the defending champions. Karl-Anthony Towns looked like the future Hall of Famer that so many people within the NBA believe him to be, while Andrew Wiggins & Co. showed the kind of promise that was so startling that it had folks on press row opining about the day when they might rule the NBA.

Yes, the Warriors made their push for a record 73-win regular season unnecessarily hard, falling 124-117 in overtime to a team that has now won 26 of 78 games. It’s all or nothing now, with a 4-0 finish required to best the 72-10 standard set by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. For bookkeeping purposes, the 65-12 San Antonio Spurs are at Oracle Arena on Thursday night, then they go on the road at Memphis on Saturday, at San Antonio on Sunday and come back for an April 13 finale against the Grizzlies at home.

But five days after the Warriors’ regular season home winning streak of 54 games was broken by the relentless Boston Celtics, their air of invincibility took yet another hit at the worst of possible times. That aspect, T-Wolves’ coming-out party aside, could certainly matter once the playoffs roll around.

Draymond Green blamed boredom, pointing the finger at the 82-game schedule that so often inspires a lackluster effort or 10 along the way. Stephen Curry focused on, well, Golden State’s lack of focus. The bottom line here, one that none of them tried to run from, is that the Warriors simply aren’t playing like the special team that spent the past five months playing themselves into this position.

“I don’t think (the push for 73 is) anything that’s weighing us down or anything like that,” Curry said. “On the floor, we just haven’t played well these last two, last three home games. It’s amplified now because we’re so close to the goal. So it’ll be a challenge for us. Something that we really need to focus on these last four games is – as much as we can, as best we can – to focus on the 48-minute execution and focus as opposed to winning games because how we play is more important than playoffs. We need to focus on that.

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