There are undefeated weeks, and then there are undefeated weeks like the one the Warriors just completed.
For the week of Monday, Apr. 3 – Sunday, Apr. 9
Record: 4-0
Every team’s goal is to be playing their best basketball once the playoffs begin. There’s no guarantee that will be the case for Golden State, but there’s also no denying how dominant they’ve been as of late.
There are undefeated weeks, and then there are undefeated weeks like the one the Warriors just completed. What began with a road back-to-back in Houston and San Antonio and concluded with home victories over the Rockets and Wizards qualifies as perhaps the most impressive single week put forth by any team in the league this season, simply due to the quality of the opposition. Those teams entered their matchups with Golden State with a combined record of 205-92 (.690) on the season, making the Warriors just the second team in NBA history to win four-straight games against teams with a winning percentage of .600-or-better in March or later. The Rockets, Spurs and Wizards are some of the very best teams the league has to offer, and Golden State beat all of them in a span of six days by an average of 13.0 points per contest.
Not bad, huh?
The most recent week was the continuation of what has arguably been the Warriors’ best stretch of the entire season to date. Their winning streak now stands at 11 games, over the course of which they’ve scored 115.2 points and allowed 97.0 points per 100 possessions, which rank as the top offensive and defensive ratings in the league over that span. In fact, their net rating of 18.2 points per 100 possessions is more than twice that of any other team in the Association over the same period. All the more impressive, the entirety of the winning streak has been achieved without the aid of Kevin Durant, who remains sidelined while recovering from a knee injury. Steve Kerr has declared that Durant will not play in either of Golden State’s next two games, but the perennial All-Star is progressing through the rehabilitation process and a return before the end of the regular season has not been ruled out at this time.
Despite missing the last 18 games, Durant still leads the team in scoring, rebounding and blocks per game. Yes, the Warriors’ two-way game is thriving right now, but the eventual inclusion of a dynamic player of his caliber certainly can’t hurt. In the meantime, Golden State will attempt to maintain the status quo as they inch closer and closer to securing the top overall seed in the upcoming postseason.
Standout Spotlight: Stephen Curry
Given how great he’s been over the last few years, it’s become easy to take Stephen Curry’s contributions for granted, but no such travesty shall occur here. There aren’t many other players in the league – if any – that can put on a show quite like the reigning two-time MVP, which he did on multiple occasions last week on his way to being named Western Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season.
Curry averaged 31.8 points, 7.8 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 34.8 minutes during the week, hitting 52.4 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from three-point range. With another 20 three-pointers over the four-game span, Curry reached the 300-three-point threshold (302) for the second-straight season after hitting an NBA-record 402 threes in 2015-16. In case you’re wondering, no other player in NBA history has made at least 300 threes in a single season.
He began the week with his ninth career regular season 30-point/10-rebound effort, then tallied 29 points and 11 assists the very next night in Golden State’s 22-point comeback victory in San Antonio. He may have saved his best for last, ending the week with a 42-point performance in the win over the Wizards, in which he made 9 of his 14 three-point attempts en route to his fourth 40-point outing of the season.
With only five games remaining in the regular season, Curry owns averages of 25.2 points, 6.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per contest, putting him on pace to become the first Warriors player to average at least 25.0 points per game in consecutive seasons since Chris Mullin did so in five-straight seasons from 1988 to 1992. Now with 10 career Player of the Week Awards, Curry has at least twice as many as any other player in franchise history (Tim Hardaway is second with five).
The Week Ahead:
Golden State faced three playoff teams last week, but in the week ahead, they’ll take on three opponents who are almost certain to not make the postseason this year. The Warriors open the week with their 17th and final back-to-back sequence of the season when they host the Timberwolves on Tuesday before traveling to Phoenix to close out the season series with the Suns on Wednesday. That trip to Phoenix represents Golden State’s lone remaining road game of the season, after which they’ll return home to host the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday. Of those three opponents, only the Pelicans have yet to be officially eliminated from playoff contention, although New Orleans’ margin of error is razor thin. Should the Warriors prevail in any of those games, they’ll set the NBA record for the most regular season victories (204) over any three-season span in league history.