They were the defending champions and they got off to a nice start. But it wasn’t long before “nice” turned to historic. Now almost a week removed from the All-Star break, the Golden State Warriors have a very real chance to break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls mark for the best record in regular season history at 72-10.
The Warriors dominance stretches far beyond the final score though. Whether it’s the frenetic style of play, the flurry of haymakers they land in the form of rainmaking three-pointers, or the fact that they’ve all but mastered “small-ball”, a defeat at the hands of the Warriors seems to have a long-lasting effect on their opponents.
The most prominent examples come from two of Golden State’s newest rivals: the Cavaliers and the Clippers. While the game itself was close, Cleveland fell to Golden State on Christmas Day. The following night, the Cavs were body-bagged by the Blazers in Portland 105-76, in a game which proved to be the beginning of the end for David Blatt. The Warriors then went to Cleveland on MLK Day and did anything but practice non-violence against the Cavs, drubbing them by 34 points. Four days later, the Cavs dumped their head coach, who had just taken them to the Finals seven months prior. Cleveland has also appeared unsure of the roster they assembled, as evidenced by rampant trade speculation, and ultimately David Griffin’s swap of Wine & Gold staple Anderson Varejao for stretch-four Channing Frye.
Meanwhile, after dropping a game to the Dubs on November 4, the Clippers dropped three of their next four contests. The Clips would have the Warriors down by 23 in their next meeting, but Golden State poured in 39 fourth quarter points to complete a stunning comeback that seemingly shattered the Clippers’ self-worth. L.A. would again lose three of their next four, as holding leads would become problematic for this team with preseason championship aspirations. Doc Rivers would eventually swing a deadline deal for Jeff Green, sacrificing a first-round pick in the process.
The Oklahoma City Thunder aren’t immune to the Warriors conjuration either. OKC hung tough with the Warriors in Oakland just before the All-Star break, but the Thunder went stone cold late and watched the Warriors pull away down the stretch. The Thunder bounced back nicely their next two games against sub-.500 opponents, but the next time they faced a potential playoff team (Indiana), they again looked paralyzed in the final minutes, resulting in a bad home loss. Two days later Durant and Westbrook were getting smoked by 23 points at home by an angry Cavs team, but not before they also made an emergency deadline deal to acquire Randy Foye.
Surly the mighty San Antonio Spurs wouldn’t succumb to such self-doubt after meeting Golden State, right? Well after getting torched by the Warriors by 30, the Spurs were again ran off the court two games later in Cleveland. Small sample, yes, but it’s worth noting the Spurs took two consecutive L’s after they lost to the Warriors last season.
This is how the best teams in the NBA react to playing the Warriors. Golden State powerbombed the Memphis Grizzlies by 50 points(!) on November 2, who proceeded to drop four of their next five games. New Orleans also played Golden State twice in their first three games of the season, losing by a combined 30 points and allowing a combined 93 points to Stephen Curry. The promising Pelicans have had a disaster of a season ever since.
It’s possible this is all a reach. Maybe we shouldn’t read too much into the deadline deals and should chalk them up as standard “keeping up with the Jones'” type stuff. Maybe the sample size of this entire “study” is far too small to formulate reasonable conclusions. But this malaise that seems to wash over these elite teams after they lose to the Warriors, coupled with (potentially) panicky front office decisions, leads one to believe there might be something to this.
There are exceptional teams in the NBA all the time (three years ago the Miami Heat won 66 games). There’s something about this Warriors team though, specifically the way in which they destroy teams psychologically and scoreboardologically, that appears to leave the rest of the league’s elite in a wobbly “FINISH HIM” Mortal Kombat state. The volume, degree of difficulty and accuracy of the demoralizing three-pointers that no other team in NBA history can approach, mixed with the pace, the under-hyped arrogance and the ring to back it all up— once teams play the Warriors, they’re often left either trying to emulate, matchup with, or in some cases fearing “The City”.
It doesn’t guarantee a championship, of course, but it’s damn impressive nonetheless.