Longtime N.B.A. observers will tell you that Spurs
Coach Gregg Popovich only cares about the regular season insofar as it
affects his team’s chances in the playoffs. Individual accolades,
particularly his own, seem to mean little to him. When he was asked, last February, about getting his thousandth career win, he responded in characteristic Pop fashion: “Give me a break,” he said.
The
Golden State Warriors are not blessed with similar focus at this late
point in the season. Their remarkable success has given them double
vision. Their coach, Steve Kerr, has deferred to his
players’ desire to
break the record for single-season wins set by the 1995-96 Bulls, who
went 72-10. “Our team wants it,” he said, after the Warriors’ overtime
win in Utah on Wednesday, which brought them five wins from breaking the
record. “They’ve made it pretty clear, so what we’re doing is listening
to them.”
Indeed,
his players have been crystal clear. “I’m not going to shy away from
saying we want the record,” Draymond Green said after a loss to the
Spurs in March. “We want the record, and we’re going after it.”
After
a surprising loss to Boston on Friday, and with only six games left,
the Warriors still need to win five to break the record. They will need
to beat the second-best team in the league, the Spurs, in at least one
of the two games that the teams are scheduled to play in the next week.
The first is on Thursday (10:30 p.m. Eastern, TNT, at Golden State); the
other, Sunday (7 p.m. Eastern, NBATV, at San Antonio).
There
is, of course, a major caveat. Many expect Popovich to rest his
starters in preparation for the playoffs, in either or even both of the
games. Spurs point guard Tony Parker is among them. “I think no one will
play” against the Warriors, he said, according to a translation from a San Antonio NBC affiliate. “To Pop, the most important thing is that the players are rested for the playoffs. As for first place, he does not care.”
We
have yet to see these squads, the N.B.A.’s two best, compete against
each other at full strength. If Pop rests his starters, we will have to
wait for the playoffs. In the Warriors’ 30-point win against the Spurs
in January, Tim Duncan was missing. When the Spurs returned the favor
last month, both Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut sat out.
Popovich’s
players may also be interested in defending a record. They have the
chance to become the first team to go undefeated at home, something that
the Warriors lost their chance at by losing to Boston. But if Pop’s
behavior stays consistent, making sure his team is ready for the
playoffs will remain his top priority.
Regardless
of the difficulty that the Spurs may or may not present, the Warriors’
loss to Boston will make their every game this week electrifying. The
pressure will be even more immense without that extra buffer zone
keeping them safely ahead of the 1995-’96 Bulls. Watching them chase the
record through this final week (and three extra days) will be a fitting
end to a season that they have dominated in every conceivable way.
When
arguing on behalf of the great teams and players of basketball history,
the gold standard is the championship. A player could win the Most
Valuable Player Award, make the All-Star Game 11 times and qualify for
the all-N.B.A. first team five times, as Charles Barkley did; it does
not matter. The championship is the thing that keeps a player in the
pantheon when astonishing performances have faded from living memory.
Even for those of us who have never seen Bill Russell play, those 11
championships are hard to ignore when ranking the greatest players ever.
But
the Warriors are within range of an equally rewarding accomplishment:
the chance to be considered as the greatest regular-season team ever.
The mix of priorities has already changed their behavior. In Utah, both
Stephen Curry and Draymond Green played over 40 minutes, and Klay
Thompson played 39, a sign of the way that the regular season matters to
the Warriors.
Some
former N.B.A. players do not think that the dual priorities will hurt
Golden State. Chris Webber said in an interview on Thursday that the
Warriors were not sacrificing anything by pursuing the two goals at
once.
“As
Steph Curry has said, moments like these only come around once in a
lifetime, and to not try to take advantage of them would be rather
foolish,” he said.
Golden
State has capitalized on the most captivating aspects of basketball,
giving soccer a run for its money as “the beautiful game.” To review the
team’s accomplishments this season: They began by winning their first
24 games, smashing the record for the best start to an N.B.A. season.
They had broken the record for most 3-pointers made in a season by the
end of March.
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