After the Milwaukee Bucks handed the Golden State Warriors their first loss of the season on Saturday, Bucks head coach Jason Kidd paid Warriors point guard Steph Curry the ultimate compliment. “We got some stops”, Curry said. “But for 48 minutes, I don’t think anybody can say we played as hard as they did”. “We wanted to make sure we did the things we did, the things we go over and try to make it as tough as possible for them”. They’ve been incredible all year, and the losses are going to come.
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The Warriors trailed by as many as 13 points in the third quarter and closed the gap to three entering the final frame, but the Bucks had too much pep in their step on both ends for the defending champions to mount a complete comeback. It’ll still be the biggest matchup of the season so far, assuming everybody’s healthy, simply because Stephen Curry and LeBron James will be in the same building. Take a look at the teams with win streaks above 12 which were ended by the Bucks.
Still, Smith has a point. That would have been quite a storyline. Milwaukee played inspired and got up for this game, and their defensive principles that worked last season were able to confuse a exhausted Warriors team.
Most every Warrior is, in most ways, a better player than he was last season.
The Warriors 24-0 win streak will go down in the history books as the longest win streak to start off the regular season.
“With Giannis (Antetokounmpo), Jabari, me and Michael (Carter-Williams), Khris (Middleton), we’re all interchangeable in a lot of positions on the floor”. The NBA’s longest winning streak was 33 by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1971-72 – and it was also snapped by Milwaukee.
Regarding The Bucks stopping the Warriors, the people of Milwaukee have got to be proud of their young team as they are winning significant games.
Cavs coach David Blatt, who guided Cleveland on a 12-game winning streak last season, spoke about the challenge of managing a run like that compared to normal regular-season preparation when a streak isn’t at stake. On the other end, the other National Basketball Association teams have to be loving the lack of media attention.
Golden State still can chase down the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ 72-10 mark, the NBA’s all-time best; after 24-1, a 49-8 finish doesn’t seem beyond their grasp. For example, the * a href=”http://stats.nba.com/league/lineups/?ls=iref:nba:gnav#!/?Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&GroupQuantity=2&TeamID=1610612744&CF=GROUP_NAME*E*ezeli|GROUP_NAME*E*speights&DateFrom=12%2F12%2F2015&DateTo=12%2F13%2F2015″ target=”_blank” *combination of Festus Ezeli and Marreese Speights at the big positions had only appeared together in seven previous games this season.
“We wanted every night to put another notch in belt of that streak, ” he said.
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“It had to come to an end sooner or later”, Smith said.
