The Golden State Warriors finally lost on Saturday night, when the Milwaukee Bucks proved too much to handle on the road. Yeah, the Bucks snapped Golden State’s insane 24-0 run to begin the 2015-16 NBA season and made the defending champions go from unbeatable to just another team in a matter of hours. Still, the Warriors are title contenders on an obvious mission. Could that mission include the best regular season record the league has ever seen?
Let’s be clear: no one ever thought the Warriors were going 82-0. It’s never happened and it never will happen. That’s too many games of being healthy, of being on, of getting lucky and of gutting out those wins that seem next to impossible. Golden State even got one of those in double overtime the night before. They were on a high, but they were tired and the next day was their seventh game in a row on the road. Those road stretches are a brutal part of the schedule. That’s a new city almost every other day for over a week. That’s not just tough, that’s borderline unfair. Yet every team goes through it and if they’re lucky, they escape with a 4-3 record in a stretch like that. The Warriors went 6-1 on the back half of a ridiculous 24-1 start.
So, with that weird, silly, ridiculous dream of perfection wiped away, we can finally focus on the big one that is actually feasible: the Warriors posting the best record in NBA history.
First we need to consider the mountain top: the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls.
Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan teamed up to form quite the dynasty, as the Bulls dominated the 1990’s with six NBA titles. That 95-96 run was their best ever, however, as they went 72-10 to own the best finish in NBA history. That’s a winning percentage of 87.8%.
The Bulls understandably won the title that year, as their dominance didn’t stick to just the regular season, but also stretched into a great playoff run. The same could be likely for the Warriors, but nothing is ever certain in the competitive Western Conference.
That’s to be debated at a later date, however. The big question is whether or not Stephen Curry can lead this team to the best NBA record we’ve ever seen.
A 24-0 run to start the year certainly doesn’t hurt. Obviously if the Warriors keep going on crazy 24-0 runs before being handed their next loss, they’d finish somewhere around 78-4 or 79-3.
Is that feasible? It can’t be. Just like this crazy streak to open the season was shocking, the Warriors doing anything close to that three more times to finish out the year just seems like it’s asking too much. That’s not to say it’s impossible, can’t be done or these very Warriors aren’t capable. They’ve proven with their league-leading offense, depth and stingy defense that they can beat anyone, in any fashion and on any given night.
But replicating what they’ve just accomplished even one more time is probably unrealistic. In fact, to even tie the Bulls going forward, they’d have to finish the year on a torrid 48-9 run.
We’ve seen a fair amount of 60+ win season and we’ve seen loads of 50+ wins seasons. Only one team ever has notched even 70 wins. Can the Warriors get hot again (and again) until they reach the best record we’ve ever seen? Yes, I think they can, and honestly, I wouldn’t put anything past this team. But I don’t think it’s likely and certainly wouldn’t be on it.
Do you think the Warriors will break the single-season NBA record for wins in a year? Tell us in the comments below!
