For the Golden State Warriors, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2017 NBA Finals helped to erase the memory of their heartbreaking loss in the championship the year before.
Nonetheless, the matter of their 73-win season without a championship lingers unsettled in their past and Steve Berman of The Athletic talked with Ryan Covay about the possibility of another historic season.
“For me, I really do think it’s going to be either they’re on cruise control because they’re just waiting for the playoffs and tired from all these Finals runs or you’re talking about 74 because the only thing they haven’t done, other than repeat which is ultimately the end goal of the season, is to have the wins record and the championship,” Berman said.
Two years ago, the Warriors broke the all-time wins record set by the Chicago Bulls, who won the NBA Finals and went 72-10 in 1995. After winning the first 24 games of the season, the Warriors never lost back-to-back games and finished the year with a 73-9 regular season standing.
Although they won No. 73 on the final day of the season, the Warriors could not win No. 16 in the playoffs and the Cleveland Cavaliers played spoilers to their historic season. Golden State took a commanding 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, but the Cavaliers rallied and won three in a row to steal the championship away from the Warriors.
“You know that still irks them, people still talk about 73-9, obviously not as much as they were last year, but still it’s the one thing and I’m sure it’s irks them a little bit,” Berman said.
Now as reigning champions, the Warriors somehow look even better than they did during their 73-win season. By drafting Jordon Bell and signing Nick Young, the Warriors added depth to the supporting cast behind their impressive core. Not to mention, Kevin Durant is much more familiar with the Warriors’ style of play after his first year with the team, and is expected to maintain his success along with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
“Kerr is obviously the architect who brought them from being a nice, little, fun team who can contend with the Clippers and Spurs a little bit in the playoffs to becoming the best team in the league,” Berman said.
With five championships between the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs, Steve Kerr was no stranger to the NBA Finals during his 15-year playing career. Starting in his first season as head coach in 2014, Kerr has reached the Finals in each of his three seasons at the helm of the Warriors.
Once the season begins on October 17, it will be seen how the Warriors plan to defend their title and if they decide to chase after No. 74.
“You’ll see right in the beginning,” Berman said. “If they’re resting a bunch of guys, sort of messing around and taking games off against lesser opponents, then you’ll probably realize they’re going for 67 or 68 wins and that’ll be a comfortable No. 1 seed overall, but I kind of feel like they’ll go for 74.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 7:07 for Berman on Warriors.