Warriors Ground Spurs to Tie NBA Record 72-9

Warriors Ground Spurs –

The Golden State Warriors finally reached the rarefied air of the legendary 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team, by grounding the San Antonio Spurs 92-86. Golden State improves to 72-9 and is guarantee a tie for the record 72-10 mark.

Stephen Curry scripted this game from the start, and fittingly, finished the job. Curry hit driving layups, leaning floaters, and those patented transition pull-up threes that are so impossible to defend. For good measure, the Warriors’ reigning MVP even dribbled through the entire Spurs cavalry with some 90 seconds left before his layup put Golden State up 11 points late on the game. He finished with 37 points, hitting 13 of 22 shots overall and – by way of a four three-pointer outing – coming within eight three pointers of a 400 mark for the season that is nothing short of unimaginable.

The Warriors got to that point with a stellar second half grind. A tough defense effort from both teams led to a halftime score of 35-35 – the lowest scoring half for the Warriors all season – the game opened up a bit after the half break.

Curry had 16 points in the third quarter, igniting a 12-0 run with a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers after the Spurs had scored the first eight points of the period. The Dubs took a 49-45 lead. The Dubs and Spurs exchanged the lead a few more times throughout the quarter, and the Warriors entered the final period up by one. The fourth quarter suddenly had flow and the quicker pace more characteristic of how the Warriors typically like to play.

The fourth quarter started with Curry on the bench, but other Warriors stepped up. Two big three-pointers from Harrison Barnes midway through the fourth came in handy, and a Klay Thompson three shortly thereafter put them up 76-69, a lead they would never give up. Thompson added a clutch 3-pointer and by the time Curry checked back in, the Dubs were up by five with six minutes to go.

Upon re-entering the game, Curry knocked down an unorthodox shot to beat the shot clock, and he assisted a Thompson transition dunk to put the Warriors up by nine. The Dubs held on from there to pick up their NBA-record tying 72nd win of the season, but that wasn’t the only record the Dubs set. The Warriors also finished the season with a road record of 34-7, winning more road games than any other team in NBA history. The win also ended a 33-game road losing streak in San Antonio that dated back to February 14, 1997, and it also marked the first Spurs home defeat this season.

When it was over, Curry and fellow All-Star Draymond Green hugged at mid court. Curry cradled the ball, pointing to his teammates who all implored their coach, Steve Kerr, to push for the record. Kerr is the only person to have a stake in both records — he was a player on that Bulls team and now is coaching the team that could break their record.

For Kerr’s part, he finally admitted in recent days that he didn’t care about breaking the record that he played a pivotal part in setting while serving as a sharpshooting reserve for those Bulls. But his players did, and that meant he would honor their collective wish to keep charging at history.

The Warriors, who made it clear for months that they had a serious interest in besting those Bulls, kept pushing at a time when – special circumstances aside – the notion of resting core players might have made more sense.

Now the Warriors have one more chance to make history in the regular season, and that will take place on Wednesday when they host the Grizzlies in the regular season finale.

JEstevez@EMIsportsCentral.com
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