Daniel Farias
Staff Writer
daniel.farias@hawks.shorter.edu
The whistle blows. The jump ball is in the air. Then, all eyes are on the defending NBA champions.
That’s how the journey started for the Golden State Warriors back in October 2015, but no one conceived of their imminent run for the record books in 2016. Amid one of the greatest seasons in NBA history, the Golden State Warriors finally settled the question in everyone’s mind, clinching the best regular season record of all time.
The Chicago Bulls pulled it off in the 1995-1996 season when the eventual NBA champions went 72-10. However, this Warriors squad maintained a head start on that Chicago team by winning their first 24 games of the season. After their first loss, the Warriors ensured they wouldn’t lose consecutive games for the remainder of the season, going 73-9.
Some might remember how head coach Stephen Kerr and the Warriors carved out a 67 win season just a year ago. Built around a young and MVP primetime point guard in Stephen Curry, Kerr’s team continued to provide sparks offensively en route to blowing out the rest of the league.
Many reasons may explain why the Warriors played so dominantly. They not only have a knockout offensive player and shooting star in Curry, who averaged 30 points per game, but they are well rounded on both offense and defense. Their bench isn’t too shabby either.
n the backcourt, Klay Thompson complements Curry on offense, scoring over 20 points per game and shooting 47 percent from the field.
Under the boards, the Warriors compete just as fiercely. Forward Draymond Green holds stellar numbers as a big man, with almost 14 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists per game. To top it all off, Andre Iguodala’s presence as a sixth man off the bench undergirds a point-generating starting lineup.
Even when Golden State seems to slow down and shift into cruise control, they have an uncanny knack for turning on the engines whenever the situation deems it necessary. For instance, the team was down by nine points at the end of the second quarter to the mediocre Washington Wizards back at the end of March. In an attempt to rally his team, Kerr told his guys, “Let’s go on a 12-0 run to end this half,” according to an ESPN report.
The team responded by scoring 12 unanswered points. In under a two-minute time span, the team went from trailing by nine to taking a three-point lead.
For the men in gold and blue, the season failed to offer any impeding obstacles down the stretch. In a majority of games, wins came in a convincing fashion. Stephen Curry and company annihilated opponents, winning games by an average of 14 points, according to nba.com.
If any team holds a shot at the NBA title it is the Golden State Warriors.
