Warriors now at 50 wins.

SanctionII

Currently the team is on a 6 game road trip. 2-1 so far. If the team wins the remaining 3 road games it would be 53-5, with 17 of its last 24 games at home. The team is undefeated at home so far this year (24-0) and has lost only 2 games at home out of the last 65. The team is 26 and 5 on the road this year.

The team is winning 10 out of every 11 games it plays. If that streak continues the Warriors will end up with a record of 75-7 for the 2015-2016 regular season.

telephoto1

Barring injuries or a highly unlikely cold streak I think they will pull it off, though I must admit the sentimental Jordan-era Bulls fan in me would like to see them keep the record a bit longer.

PaulMaul

Holy crap, what a game!

Darin

Originally posted by: PaulMaul
Holy crap, what a game!

That game makes me want to buy a Steph Curry rookie card.
And I normally only collect baseball cards.

UncleTwoPillow

Just watched highlights. Firecrackers exploding in my head. Curry is amazing.

SanctionII

The Warriors played a very un Warrior like game last night. They took too many 3 point shots and all players but Curry has off shooting nights from 3. They did not rebound well and did not defend the paint (the team needs to have Ezili heal and get back on the floor, Bogut is a great defended but his minutes are limited, Verajao looks very awkward on both ends of the floor).

Even though the Warriors did not play well they kept hanging around all game. At the end of the 4th quarter and in OT they turned things up defensively and offensively. OKC made mistakes. Curry took over and carried the team to a win it should not have.

My son and I were watching the game and we were both just awestruck at the display that Steph put on.

Curry is not what one thinks of when one envisions an elite pro basketball player. One usually thinks of a guy like LeBron James, Kobe, MJ etc. A guy who is 6'6" or taller, who is all about physically overpowering his opponent with slashing drives ending in dunks or with backing the defender down in the paint and shooting over him.

Curry is not about physically overpowering his opponent.

Curry is about out playing his opponent using basketball skills (dribbling, passing, shooting, body positioning, floor spacing, constant movement, spatial awareness) and using speed, quickness, craftiness and guile to breakdown the defender to get even the smallest advantage. Once Curry has obtained any advantage he will exploit it and make his defender pay.

Could you imagine if you could transfer Curry's skill set into a 22 year old LeBron James, or Kobe Bryant, or Akeem Olajawan, or Magic Johnson?

UncleTwoPillow

Come on. How do you defend a guy who pulls up from HALF COURT and throws up rainbows? You can't. No one in NBA history has ever had that skill set. Not MJ. Not Kobe. Maybe his mirror image from range, Durant, on a magical night, can spot up and consistently make 40+ foot shots. Curry just makes it look sickeningly easy. There were guys who we used to hang with at the local Parks & Rec, and there'd always be that ONE GUY, someone who just knew how to put on a show, aside from any real skill, the ONE GUY could always bank it in from the parking lot, last space on the left.



That's what Curry reminds of. The guy who could bank it in from the last space on the left. ;-)

larryallen73

What a game Saturday. I really like the Thunder but it's hard not to be really impressed by the Warriors. That last 3 pointer in OT. Talk about a dagger. That could deflate OKC for the season. No matter how well they played when a guy pulls up, and hits, from 30-35 feet out what can you do!? Just amazing.

galaxy27

I'm sure many of you are aware of what Oscar Robertson said the other day about Curry, prior to what he did against the Thunder, mind you. If you didn't catch wind, he basically insinuated that Curry wouldn't have been as successful in past eras. All kinds of balderdash like he's only as good as he is now because NBA defenses are bad, that NBA coaches don't know what they're doing, no one has devised a strategy to sufficiently stop his offensive barrage......on and on and on.



Well, after Curry's sublime performance against OKC, Baron Davis tweeted a funny: "Big O .... That's enuff.. We love u but... U need to order the League Pass... #apologize2datman"



I've shown this once before, but in light of everything that has transpired over the past week, it's worth revisiting again. If I had to sum up Curry's excellence in one play, it's this one. Court awareness. Floor-spacing. Movement w/o the rock. Handle. Shot. All rolled into one against the 2015 Defensive Player of the Year in Kawhi Leonard:



Link



Big O, that's enough.

UncleTwoPillow

Well, the game has transitioned, just some guys who used to play it different and got a lot older see it a different way. Oscar has fond memories of a physical game dominated by tough guys who defended the rack with vigor and made you pay.



Now the refs make you pay with a Flagrant 1 or 2, and suddenly the lane opens up for a little guy who can carry a game. Try to defend him inside, he takes it out to the burbs and buries 3's.



Maybe O wants to see what Curry could do with the Pistons Bad Boys of the 90s, McHale with a Rambis-style horse collar tackle, or just take dat shiznit to da hizzy with Kareem, Wilt or Bill Russell waiting to swat it into the upper deck.



Old dudes got game, too. Too bad they can't pull off the civilian threads and be Superman again.

cardbender

I can see Oscar's point of view. The rules have changed over the years. The players of today carry the ball so much more than they ever
were allowed to do back in pre 1980's pro ball. When you carry the ball, almost any player can get an open look.

Another thing, the 3 point shot first appeared in the ABA in 1967, that league ran 9 years. Four ABA teams merged with the NBA in 1976.
The NBA didn't employ the 3-pt shot until 1979. So all the strategy involved with taking so many three's wasn't even ever considered
by the older players or coaches, pre 1980.

So yeah, Curry being probably the best three point shooter ever (so far), he wouldn't have been launching 35 ft. two pointers
back in the day. The more strict and less liberal coaches of the 1960's and 1970's would have benched him if he was
taking crazy outside shots like he does now, even if he did make 45% of them. They would rather pound the ball into the paint
to try to draw the foul to get to the line for the old school 3-point play.

But yeah, in today's NBA, Curry is certainly amazing.

SanctionII

Warriors v. Thunder Part 3 set to tip off tonight in Oakland.

Since the All Star break OKC has hit the skids, losing 5 of 7 games. Last night the Thunder blew a 22 point second half lead against the Clippers in LA and lost. The night before they won in Sacramento. One of owners of the Thunder died yesterday, possibly suicide due to a criminal indictment being handed down on Tuesday. Do not know how close the players and coaching staff might have been with the decedent.

OKC is playing third game in a back to back to back on the road.

It will be interesting to see how the Thunder plays tonight. I expect it to be either a close game the entire 48 minutes or a run away win by the Warriors. I do not think the Warriors will take this game lightly. If the Warriors win easily that would give the team a mental advantage over the Thunder in a 7 games playoff series.

I wonder of Curry and/or Iggy will suit up and play tonight?

Interesting how the Warriors have won every game they have played so far against the best teams in the league (Cavs, Spurs, Thunder, Toronto, Atlanta, Clippers)

SanctionII

Warriors now at 60 wins. Next up 70 and the 73.

DIMEMAN

I like the Warriors and like Curry. But that Bull team was better. The whole East and most of the West was better in that era also. Hence the difference in records.

PSASAP

Whether or not the 1995-96 Bulls team was better than the current Warriors team is not clear cut. Granted I would give the edge to the Bulls big three (Jordan, Pippen and Rodman) over Curry, Thompson and Green, and that's mainly because Jordan and Pippen are two of the greatest players in the history of the NBA, and there was no better rebounding forward than Rodman. However, looking that their minutes played, all three were logging 36 or more minutes per game. That leads me to the conclusion that their bench was not very good, and that the subs weren't trusted to hold the lead in close games. In contrast, the Warriors have a great bench, easily the best in the league. Reputation notwithstanding, Curry is having a better season than Jordan, and for that matter, any player in history. Jordan and Curry are close in scoring average, but Curry is shooting so much better than Jordan did that year, and is close to Jordan's numbers in assists and rebounds. It's very difficult to compare eras, because of rule changes, evolution of playing styles, etc., but it definitely is not a slam dunk to say that the Bulls were better. Depending on how the Dubs do in the playoffs, a case could be made that they are the better team, especially if they breeze through the post season. Lastly, the Bulls did not have a team pushing them for the best record, as the Spurs are doing, so to say that the competition was better 20 years ago is more opinion and less fact.

SanctionII

Warriors playing the Clipper in Oakland tonight. The game should be exciting. This year the Warriors are 3-0 against the Clippers so far. All 3 games were close. This one should be no different. It is likely that these two teams will play in the second round of the playoffs this year. The Clippers will want to win tonight to get some confidence going when the two team play in the 2nd round. If the Warriors trounce the Clippers tonight that will not bode well for the Clippers in a playoff series.

Warriors are 63-7 and assuming that continue to win at their current pace they will end the season 74-8 or 73-9. Notwithstanding pundits that say the Warriors should rest up players for the playoffs I suspect that the players, coaches and management are intent on winning 73 or more games.