OT Golden State Warriers: Breaking the record watch

GSW will need to go 4-0 to beat the Bulls 72 regular season wins.
Thur. April 7th they have San Antonio at home.
Sat. April 9th they have Memphis on the road.
Sun. April 10th they have San Antonio on the road.
Wed. April 13th they have Memphis at home.

Even if they do break the record I don't think they would come close to beating the 95-96 Bulls team. I really miss the old days of the NBA when a player drove to the hole, you could just put him on his ass without getting T'd up of a flagrant foul called.

 

I don't see any way they make it now having screwed the timberwolf last night. Early in the season I kind of wanted them to break the record because I do like something about their style of basketball. With the way they have finished I don't think they have earned it now.

 

I would selfishly like to see them tie the record because that would (probably) mean they beat MEM twice. Otherwise I could see them not trying hard in the last game against MEM.

 

Hard to say. You're comparing two different eras. I think if the game was played today, with today's rules, the Warriros would win. If the game was played in 1996, the Bulls would win easily. I don't care how well the Splash Brothers shoot the ball, there's just no way 8-year old Steph Curry and 6-year old Klay Thompson could hang with Jordan and Pippen in their prime.

BNM

 

There's a lot of interesting storylines. If we need them to beat Memphis to give us the 5th seed I'll root for that. If we have that locked up I'll be curious if the Spurs rest anyone. What if Golden State losses both Spurs games and the Spurs win out? If they choke on either Memphis game they'd drop to the 2 seed. Will the Spurs go 41-0 at home? If the Warriors get 73 wins or tie the 72 win Bulls will the extra pressure hurt them in the playoffs? If the Warriors fall short will their owner get more blame for jinxing the team? A lot could happen it'll be interesting to see what ultimately plays out.

 

Yeah I dunno; The Bulls went to 7 games against Reggie Miller. He was a 5 year old compared to those two.

I'd pick the Bulls but if the Warriors had their small ball death lineup running effectively as it did against LeBron and hit a bunch of threes they could have a chance against any team in history. Now over a decade of battles the Bulls win more. But one series doesn't always see the best team win if they are somewhat evenly matched.

Those rules would help the Bulls but it's not the be all end all many make it out to be.

 

Yeah; unless they lose game #80 against Memphis; which seeing them lose to the Lakers and Twolves isn't impossible.

 

Based on fivethirtyeight's latest simulations, they have the Warriors finishing at 72-10 - identical to the 95-96 Bulls. The difference is those 95-96 Bulls peaked at the right time and set the all-time team ELO record of 1853 after beating SEA 108-86 in Game 3 of the NBA finals. At that point, they were 14-1 in the post season (86-11 overall), with several blowout wins and a single 3-point overtime loss to the Knicks in the second round.

The Warriors team ELO peaked at 1839 back on December 11 when they were 24-0. After losing to the Celtics and Timberwolves, their team ELO has dropped 33 points in the last week, all the way down to 1770. They are now second to the Spurs in both team ELO and Point Differential. According to the numbers, they aren't even the best team this season, let alone ever. Their team ELO has been in a pretty steady decline since early February. Unlike the 95-96 Bulls who saw a very steady increase in team ELO from early March through the NBA finals in June.

Of course, these are all just numbers. As we saw last night, the simulations are never 100% accurate. Last night, fivethirtyeight's simulations had the odds of the Warriors winning as 96% with a 19-point margin of victory. Turns out last night was one of the 4% of the times the underdog defied the long odds and won. With two games left against the Spurs, and the entire post season left, the Warriors could recover and still set the all time team ELO record and overtake the Bulls as the best (simulated) team in NBA history, or they could be like the 2001 Seattle Mariners that won a record 116 games but lost in the ALCS to the Yankees.

It will be fun to see where the 2013-14 Warriors end up, both in the real world and the simulated one. Their legacy is yet to be written. Can they match the 95-96 Bulls with 72 or even exceed them, with 73 regular season wins? Can they make it through the first 15 games of the post season at 14-1 (I REALLY doubt that one, as they'd likely have to go through the Spurs in the WCF to get there). Can they even repeat as NBA champs, or are they destined to be the NBA's version of the 2001 Mariners? Guess we'll see. And once all the dust settles, if they do match the Bulls regular season record, and if they win the title, I'd love to see fivethirtyeight run their simulations of 50,000 games between the 1995-96 Bulls vs. the 2013-14 Warriors to tell us, statistically, which team would be the odds on favorite to win a 7-game series.

BNM

 

POTY CANDIDATE!

I laughed so hard I spit up tea all over my keyboard.


And I haven't had a drink of tea in four hours.

 

Dallas won 67 and got bounced by the 8th seed in 6 games.

 

I'm rooting against them because I don't think they're as good as the Bulls, therefore I don't think they deserve to break their record.

 

I don't really care but I do hate the Warriors and root for them to lose 99% of the time.

 

I don't see how potentially injuring players is good for the league.

 

Yep and Dallas lost their first four games of the season so they were 67-11 coming into the playoffs.

 

Yes they do. If the Warriors win both games against the Grizzlies, they are the #1 seed.