Tonight's the Night the Golden State Warriors Lose, Right?
By Jason McIntyre
The Warriors overcame a 23-point first half deficit on the road against everyone’s least favorite team, the Clippers, and improved to 13-0 with a 124-117 victory. Stephen Curry finished with 40 points. Golden State, less than six months after winning the NBA Finals, are on the cusp of another record: Most consecutive games won to start the season.
The record is 15 by two teams (most recently the 1993-1994 Rockets), and if the Warriors can defeat the Bulls at home tonight, the only teams standing between Golden State and history are Denver (Sunday) and the Lakers (Tuesday).
The fact that the Warriors got to the Bulls game undefeated is impressive. Consider this 4th quarter against the Clippers:
The Bulls aren’t the defensive team they were a year ago – reminder: they did win in Golden State in January, 113-111 in overtime, snapping the Warriors’ 19-game home winning streak – but they’re rested, and they do have a healthy Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose. It’ll be fascinating to see how the Bulls counter the Warriors’ small-ball attack (Draymond Green at center) when they’ve got the quartet of Taj Gibson, Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah and Nikola Mirotic.
One thing Warriors fans need not worry about: Trailing by 20. According to ESPN, since the start of the 2014 season, the Warriors have trailed by 20 six times. They’re 3-3. The rest of the NBA in that span? A cumulative 13-486. That’s .02%.
Golden State is favored by eight.