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Sixty Wins And West Clinched: What Now For The Warriors?

On Saturday night the Golden State Warriors got a road win in Milwaukee. On most occasions a victory over a sub .500 team isn’t usually cause for too much praise and this time around the win itself wasn’t even overly impressive. What is impressive is what that win meant for the Warriors. It was the Warriors 60th win of the year.

Sixty. A number that only 69 teams in NBA history have ever reached. It’s a number that is one greater than any other Warriors team has ever gotten to, breaking the mark set by the 1974-75 NBA champions. Coincidentally, it was also the win that clinched the Western Conference top seed for the Dubs. With the somewhat early clinching of the top seed comes the inevitable fork in the road for Head Coach Steve Kerr. Do the Warriors pack it in and rest up for the postseason? Or do they keep their foot on the gas for the remaining nine games and try to make history?

Packing it in for the next two weeks has it’s obvious perks. Being moderately healthy and moderately well-rested heading into the grueling two month sprint towards a title that is the NBA Playoffs is about half of the battle, and by giving any guys who need to rest their bones and recover from any minor or nagging injuries an opportunity to do so could prove beneficial in the long run.

Then again, it’s not like any Warriors players have been logging major minutes anyway. Did you know that Stephen Curry hasn’t played in 17 4th quarters because the Warriors already had the game in hand? Did you know that there isn’t a single Warriors player is in the top 20 in total minutes played this season?

Let’s say Kerr goes the other way. Let’s say he realizes that some major milestones are in reach if they close the season out strongly, and decide to do so. Just take a look at some of the exclusive clubs the Warriors are either on pace to join or can join pending a successful final nine games:

The Warriors are on pace to be the only team in NBA history to score more than 109 points per game, give up fewer than 100, shoot better than 47 percent from the field and hold their opponents to under 43 percent shooting.

The Warriors are currently on pace to join the 07-08 Boston Celtics as the only teams to post an offensive rating of 110 or higher and a defensive rating of 101 or lower.

The Warriors are currently 26-11 on the road. If the Warriors go 4-0 in their remaining road games they will become the fifteenth teams in NBA history have won 30 road games.

The Warriors are currently 34-2 at home. If they win out, they will tie the 2008-09 Cleveland Cavaliers, 1995-96 Chicago Bulls and 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for the second best home record ever. Even if they only go 3-2 in their final five home games, they’ll be only the fifteenth team ever to win 37 home games in a season.

If the Warriors were to win out, they would post the second best record in NBA history, tied with the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls and 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.

The Warriors are on pace to become the 8th team since 1960 to have a +10 point differential for an entire season, joining the 2007-08 Celtics (10.3), 1996-97 Bulls (10.8), 1995-96 Bulls (12.3), 1991-92 Bulls (10.4), 1971-72 Lakers (12.3), 1971-72 Bucks (11.1), and 1970-71 Bucks (12.2). Only the 1971-72 Bucks didn’t win the title, and that’s because they lost to the Lakers in the Playoffs.

As you can see, there are major historical implications in play here. The Warriors have kicked all sorts of ass this season and if they head into the Playoffs on a roll it’s really, really difficult to imagine any team beating them four out of seven games.

If I’m Steve Kerr I’m saying “screw this fork” and going right up the middle. Rest the guys that need to be rested, but don’t do it just because the top seed is already clinched. Let your team run the opposition out of the gym in the first three quarters and then rest the key guys in the final frame each night. It’s been working all year, why change it up now?

Author: Sonny Giuliano

When I was young my parents told me not to talk to strangers, but if you wanna chat or have a friendly debate about the NBA, then we can make an exception! Follow me on Twitter… it’s gonna be fun.

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  • http://therunnersports.com/ Tyler Arnold

    I would say keep them playing at least a bulk of the minutes. Obviously Kerr has managed minutes astoundingly this year. But I’m all for keeping guys game ready. When you’ve been efficient as you’ve been all year do you really wanna tell your guys to take it easy for a couple of weeks? Boston kept their guys logging healthy minutes and look how that paid off in ’08.