The Weekly Dish

It's the last week before the All-Star break, and the Warriors already have one of their highest win totals in the last half century.

For the week of Monday, Feb. 8 – Sunday, Feb. 14

Last season, the Warriors played a total of 103 combined regular season and playoff games on their way to the championship, and after adding two more wins in two games last week, the Dubs are almost at the exact midway point of that total. Who knows how far this year’s team will go and how long it will take them to get there, but given their success thus far on the season to date, it’s not difficult to understand why many expect another deep postseason run for the second consecutive year. With wins over the Wizards and Thunder last week, the Warriors now sit at 46-4 on the season, which ties them with the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers for the best record in NBA history through 50 games. And while that accomplishment should certainly be revered within league circles, the record pace that the Warriors have been on means even more to longtime fans of the team, and understandably so.

The Warriors have two more games to play before the league convenes in Toronto next weekend for the annual All-Star festivities, and just for the sake of this exercise, let’s assume they win both of them. That would put Golden State at 48-4 heading into All-Star Weekend, which is an astounding record for a number of reasons. First, obviously, is just the sheer magnitude of that impressive feat. After all, that’s more wins than the New Orleans Pelicans – the Warriors first round playoff opponent - had last season. But, when you measure it against the history of the franchise, it provides some context to even further elucidate the awesomeness of what has taken place so far this season. For instance, the Warriors have won more than 48 games only four times in the last 40 years, and half of those instances have come in the last two seasons. The 2006-07 ‘We Believe’ team? 42 wins, before winning 48 and missing the playoffs the following year. The 2012-13 Warriors, who began their current three-year streak of making the postseason, finished the regular season 47-35, and the ‘Run TMC’ teams topped 48 wins only once.

Yes, the Warriors are reigning champions and have much higher standards now than likely ever before in the history of the franchise, but that doesn’t erase that history, and it just goes to show the massive turnaround the franchise has undergone within the last couple years. Certainly, having a core built around three All-Stars in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green has plenty to do with it, but each of those players would be as quick to give Steve Kerr the credit as he would be to redirect it back at them. There’s a palpable, fun synergy to this team, and they bring it with them wherever they go. They thrive at Oracle Arena, where they haven’t lost a regular season game in over a full calendar year, but their success on the road may be even more indicative of what sets them apart. Since Kerr became the head coach at the beginning of last season, the Warriors have won 51 of 68 road games (.750), with one more to play before the All-Star break. For comparison, Golden State went a combined 56-141 (.284) on the road from 2008-09 through 2012-13. There’s two games left to make the first “half” of the season even more special than it’s already been, but regardless of the outcomes of those two contests, it’s clear this team is well on its way towards rewriting both franchise and league record books.

Shaun Livingston almost single-handedly kept the Warriors afloat in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s win over Oklahoma City, and Marreese Speights may have had his best two-game stretch of the season, but awarding the Spotlight to a player with a 50-point game is simply one of the unwritten rules of this column. I’m beginning to be convinced that there just aren’t enough words in the English language to properly encapsulate the magnitude of what Curry has been able to maintain through the first 50 games of this season, and after a 51-point effort by way of 11 three-pointers against the Wizards, that task got even tougher on Wednesday. His 26-point, 10-assist double-double against the Thunder was nothing to scoff at either, but much like the team he leads, it’s become too easy to take for granted his contributions on a game-by-game basis. He’s the best shooter on the planet, has been the best player in the league this season, and is on pace for the best offensive season by a guard in the history of the NBA. There will be those that doubt some or all aspects of that last statement, but the numbers don’t lie. Whether it’s his record-breaking pace on three-pointers, his other-worldly shooting efficiency, or his improvement upon his MVP campaign of a year ago, almost every statistic indicates that he’s been on a level unto himself this season, and not just relative to his current peers. He’ll head into the All-Star break as the unquestioned leading candidate for the MVP award, and he’ll get the chance to defend an additional title on Saturday in the Three-Point Contest at All-Star Weekend.

As mentioned, two games lie between the Warriors and the All-Star break. First up is a home game against the visiting Houston Rockets on Tuesday, after which the team will head to Phoenix for the back end of a home-road back-to-back on Wednesday. An undefeated week would leave the Warriors all alone with the best record in NBA history through 52 games. After that, most of the Warriors will get some well-deserved rest as the league convenes for All-Star Weekend, where the team will be well-represented by their All-Star trio of Curry, Thompson and Green.

Till next week.