Golden State Warriors: Win No. 73 The Next Step To Being The Best Ever

After finishing the 2015-16 season with the best record in NBA history at 73-9, the Golden State Warriors took the next step to becoming the greatest team ever.

It’s official, and there can be no dispute about it anymore: The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors are the greatest regular season team in NBA history. With their 73rd win Wednesday night, the Dubs passed the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ all-time record of 72-20, finishing with a league-leading point differential of +10.8 and an NBA-record 34 road wins.

But you’ll notice one little phrase included there that might miff a few Warriors fans who already know where this is going: “The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors are the greatest regular season team in NBA history.”

Regular season, not ever.

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As of right now, 16 wins separate the Warriors from the true basketball immortality of that label. While I won’t be naive enough to dismiss the greatest regular season ever as “meaningless” if an NBA championship isn’t attached, I will say that the whole point of the blood, sweat and tears of an 82-game season boils down to what happens when that ball tips for playoff game No. 1.

The Dubs are the first team in NBA history to go through an entire 82-game season without losing back-to-back games. They have the likely back-to-back league MVP, three All-NBA caliber players, a head coach who’s gone 156-29 so far in his tenure and they should be the hands down favorites to go back-to-back as NBA champs.

But as of right now, all that pristine 73-9 record means is that the Dubs have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Starting Saturday, every team still standing boasts an 0-0 record, with each one only 16 wins away from securing that 2016 Larry O’Brien trophy.

The Warriors are in better position than anyone to obtain it, of course. They dominated their regular season series with the San Antonio Spurs, a 67-win juggernaut that would’ve been the undisputed title favorites in any other year if not for Golden State’s existence. Don’t forget, the Dubs won 67 games last year when they were the heavy title favorites.

The Dubs also boast a dominant 14-1 combined record against the Spurs, Cavaliers, Thunder, Clippers and Raptors, the teams with the five best records in the league aside from the Dubs.

Golden State went 39-2 at home this season and the scary thing is that they’ll now have more time to rest between playoff games, when the contests matter far more than a fun but non-essential pursuit of win No. 73.

The Dubs ALWAYS get up for the big games, and now that they’re healthy at the right time, it actually might not be impossible to see them go “Fo’ Fo’ Fo’ Fo'” with a perfect 16-0 playoff record en route to another championship.

After all, they certainly have the personnel to get them there. Stephen Curry is a human flamethrower, as everyone who wasn’t watching Kobe Bryant‘s final game found out Wednesday night. In a game where nerves could have dominated the proceedings, Curry chose not to break the ice, but completely incinerate it with 20 points and six three-pointers in the first quarter alone.

Entering the night, Curry had made 392 three-pointers, leaving him eight shy of an unearthly 400. Considering his personal record (and the NBA’s single season record) stood at last year’s mark of 286, Curry obliterated his old record in style, draining 10 three-pointers on the night en route to 46 points, giving him a new three-point record of 402.

By scoring 46 in the regular season finale, Curry became the first guard to average at least 30 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field.

The soon-to-be repeat MVP averaged 30.1 points, 6.7 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game this season, but he also joined the 50-40-90 club with godly .504/.454/.908 shooting splits, a feat even more impressive for a guy taking 11.2 threes per game.

But it’s not just Curry’s unprecedented shooting prowess that deserves our attention, since Klay Thompson, the other Splash Brother, had a historic season as well, averaging 22.1 points and 3.8 rebounds per game on .470/.425/.873 shooting splits.

In fact, if it weren’t for Curry, Thompson would now own the NBA single season record for made three-pointers since he drained 276 this season — just 10 shy of Curry’s previous record from last year.

And then there’s triple-double machine Draymond Green, the heart and soul of the best regular season team in NBA history. While Russell Westbrook stole the show with the most triple-doubles in a single season since the NBA/ABA merger (18), Green wasn’t very far behind with 13 of his own.

Green led the Dubs in assists and rebounds this season, while also doubling as the team’s most versatile defender, a vastly improved perimeter shooter and the Dubs’ emotional leader in the locker room. This team is unlike anything we’ve seen in NBA history, and win No. 73 cemented their place as the greatest regular season team of all time.

But even with Curry having the greatest individual season in NBA history, even with the Warriors setting NBA records left and right and even with that 73rd win indisputably separating them from Michael Jordan‘s Bulls, there’s still work to do.

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Winning 73 games is an accomplishment that no other franchise can boast, but until the Golden State Warriors hoist that Larry O’Brien trophy for the second straight year, it’s just another step toward this team’s ultimate goal: becoming the greatest team in NBA history, regular season or otherwise.