The defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors saw themselves hauled back to reality recently after suffering an upset to the Milwaukee Bucks Saturday.
The match was more of a big deal for the Warriors who seemed unbeatable until their shots stopped falling. Thus, the historic run has come to a stop, although it still places them in the record books as the second best start in a season in NBA history, leaving the 33-0 record of the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers safe for now.
However, the setback doesn’t seem to be as startling as many see it, with the Warriors still in good position to gain more records. In fact, there is one more on the table, the 72-10 season record that belongs to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, as mentioned by Sports Illustrated.
With only their first loss thus far, the Warriors just have to make sure they don’t lose more than eight games to break the record or nine games to tie it. With 57 games to go in the season, that seems to be a long way off but something that can be doable at the rate the Warriors are playing.
Better To Lose Now Than Later
While many are left dismayed by the loss, such had to come. From all indications, the loss may have done more good than bad for the defending NBA champions moving forward.
One is that the loss dragged them down to reality and served as a harsh wakeup call that the team is not “perfect”. A perfect 82-0 record, which was something that Draymond Green believes could be done (via NESN), is nothing if the team falls at some point in the postseason. Hence, it may have been better to deal with such loss this early rather than then.
Moreover, a loss may have just made the Warriors more dangerous. Though their loss was seen more of a bag shooting night by some, the fact remains that they are human with all the unforced turnovers they had at the time, as singled out via USA Today.
Despite all that, the fact that the Warriors weren’t even expected to get off to a hot start this season is already an accomplishment by itself. Though most of the team were on “cloud nine” the past month or so, it does wake them up to the reality that there is still a regular season to play before the stakes get higher once again.
“Obviously, nobody wanted it to end and you want every night for it to be another notch in that belt for the streak,” Curry said. “But ending up with our first loss, you can kind of appreciate what we were able to accomplish. I think we can re-focus on not just winning games, but how we’re playing."
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