But while the Warriors will certainly be heavy favorites to repeat as NBA Champions in the upcoming playoffs, regular-season dominance has not always translated into postseason success for other historically great teams in other sports.
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The Warriors’ 72 wins tied them with Jackson’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who finished with a win-loss record of 72-10 en route to a championship.
This isn’t merely about the Warriors pushing past the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ NBA-record 72 victories, though that is the specific and stated goal for Green, Stephen Curry and their teammates.
“We have an opportunity to do something that’s never been done in history”, said Curry, the league’s top scorer and reigning MVP.
Congrats to @GSWarriors_ & Steve Kerr Steph curry and crew go for 72 win and get 73 on weds. “And then I remember thinking, ‘That record will never be touched because it’s too hard.’ I thought we’d be better, but the 72-win thing is something I never would have thought going into this season”.
Maybe pride is an overused factor in any sporting event, but for the Grizzlies, it provides plenty of incentive to play their best game of the season on Wednesday night. “It’s our last regular-season game, our last tune-up before the playoffs and, obviously, nobody wants to lose their last game going into the playoffs”. Having watched both, to answer the question we have to go beyond the numbers.
As much as the Spurs say they did not want to be the first team to go undefeated at home during the regular season, you have to feel in a way, they did. The Warriors won the season series 3-1 against the Spurs.
“You can’t not talk about it at this point”.
“It really reinforces the pride we have in our city”, Dawan said. “The whole world is talking about it now”, Green said. It’s everywhere. There’s no way to hide from it now. It makes you appreciate all the work that’s gone into it, the sacrifice, the good decisions from upstairs.
The Warriors probably have to win several more titles to equal to the full breadth of the 49ers’ dynasty – five championships in 14 seasons, including back-to-back after the 1988 and 1989 seasons. In 1996, Jordan, Pippen and Dennis Rodman were named first-team National Basketball Association all-defensive players, with centre Horace Grant making the second team.
Curry never saw this coming. “We ain’t got our team, and we made the playoffs”. Pennington, who gave Curry a “P” in the PIG game with a shot from the right wing just inside the 3-point arc, caught 28 in a row on video. Even if he doesn’t score a single point in his last game, Bryant will cap his career with a 25.0 scoring average (24.95, rounding up, technically).
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“We’re not playing for a championship, and I’m pretty black-and-white on where I stand with that sort of stuff”, Bryant said. “I kept this one”, Curry said. Forget the triple-doubles, the stifling defense, the endless motor…just like Curry, there isn’t anyone quite like him in the entire league, and there’s absolutely no way the Warriors get to where they are without his unique presence. “We took a couple hits in some games where you wish they had been closer or we had given ourselves a chance to win”.
