Nba 2016-2017 Season! Let's Get It On!

[ppdd]

Boston just defeated GSW on their homecourt

WOW

 

BOS 109 - 106 GSW

[Guiness]

Steve Kerr: Late-season struggles similar to what '96 Bulls faced

 

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The day after his team suffered its first home loss of the season and first regular-season home defeat in 54 games, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that chasing records and the subsequent media attention have had an impact on his squad's recent play.

"I think they want the [wins] record," Kerr said of his players Saturday after practice. "But I think what they probably realize is maybe all the talk and all the focus on the record has gotten us away from the process of who we are."

 

After Friday night's 109-106 loss to the visiting Boston Celtics, Golden State (68-8) needs to go 5-1 the rest of the way to set the NBA single-season mark of 73 wins.

Although Kerr said he doesn't believe players are consciously weighing the feat, he thinks the pressure and attention their chase of the record has drawn is having an effect.

"I do think the constant questions and talk about -- whether it's home win streak or record or whatever -- I think all that stuff does take its toll, whether the players know it or not, whether it's a conscious thing or not, and it probably has taken a little bit away from, as I said, our process or our work."

When asked if he experienced something similar when his Chicago Bulls team set the record with 72 wins in 1996, Kerr answered in the affirmative.

 

"It's exactly the same," Kerr said. "Honestly, it was exactly the same. Constant media questioning about the streak."

Kerr posited that the attention had an impact on how that Bulls team finished the season.

"In fact, if you look back at that season, we lost two home games in the last week, 10 days of the season, both by a basket or one point," Kerr said. "We were, I think, I want to say 37-0 or something that season at home, and we lost two of our last four. When we did break the record, in Milwaukee, I still remember it. It was a horrendous basketball game. We won like 85-80 or something. So yeah, it was like the same kind of thing. Constant scrutiny, little slippage in our execution, eking out wins, so it does feel the same way."

Those Bulls did in fact cede two of their last four at home with one-point losses to the Charlotte Hornets and Indiana Pacers. Kerr's memory of the record-breaking game in Milwaukee was off by only one point, as the Bulls won 86-80.

For months, Kerr has been less publicly enthused about the wins record than his players, but he indicated that it does matter to him.

"I care," he said. "I think it'd be a great feather in our cap, caps, whatever."

Still, he re-emphasized a priority on winning a championship and explained how a title would be the greatest achievement.

"I think it'd be cool [to break the record], but we all know what our focus is. We want to win a championship," Kerr said. "The championship goes up on the wall, and records are broken. People break records. Championships last forever."

[ppdd]

another upset at the oracle arena!

Minnesota Timberwolves (124) wins over GSW (117)

 

Warriors are now 69-9 with 4 games remaining (2x games against Spurs and Grizzlies)

Edited April 6, 2016 by ppdd

[spicycurry30]

frustrating to see teams that are fighting for playoff spots still losing (aka houston rockets and utah jazz) lol

[Guiness]

2015-16 Warriors vs. 1995-96 Bulls: Not even close

 

Oh, please. Today's Golden State darlings wouldn't win a game against the Bulls of back when, so enough myth measuring.

It has been overripe, this imitation rivalry between the indelible Bulls and the wishful Warriors, as hollow an option as paper and plastic, boxers and briefs, gluten and grain.

Let's see how many metaphors we can torture. The Bulls are the mansion on the hill and the Warriors are the double-wide in the driveway assuming it would be just as grand if it could only get as many bath mats.

It is a race being run with the Bulls already at the finish line, a drink in one hand and a cigar in the other. Come on, boys, and bring us a refill.

 

Chasing history is dancing with a ghost. It is following footprints. It is adding a new verse to an old song. It is reading a used book.

OK. That's enough.

This whole thing has been concocted by circumstance and pushed by tedium, and entirely beside the point, or the 3-point to invoke the current fashion.

Old Bulls scoff, such as Scottie Pippen and Ron Harper, as well they should. Old foe Charles Barkley laughs out loud. In fact, it is hard to find anyone who thinks Golden State would have a chance, including uncommitted Warriors coach Steve Kerr with a coy foot in each camp.

 

So what's the point? Blame it on numbers. Or, to use the Mark Twain formula, lies, damn lies and statistics.

The team that wins the most games ever has to be the best team ever. No? Let's check the scorecard. Consider the 2001 Mariners, winners of 116 baseball games who could take only one of four from the Yankees in the playoffs.

The '96 Red Wings, winners of a record 62 games, lost to the 15-fewer-wins Avalanche in the Stanley Cup semis.

Or maybe the 17-0 Dolphins, the team of my beginnings in this sportswriting game, still owners of the only perfect NFL season. But the best football team ever? Not then, and not since.

Argue that the record-setting Bulls were not as good as the Lakers whose mark they passed, or several editions of the Celtics, and say they are iffy against the Shaq-Kobe Lakers or the Lebron-Wade Heat. Say they might not be even as good as themselves the very next season, when the Bulls won three fewer games but dominated start to finish, meeting expectations and overcoming monotony.

 

But they certainly were better than the Warriors of any time, including the title team with Rick Barry.

Sports relies on this sort of thing, of course, reassurance that the games are getting better and the athletes are getting greater and that records are made to be transferred to a digital file.

Every threat to some standard or other works in both directions, prompting recall of the then with the now, and who does not want to be reminded that the working center of those Bulls was the lost Australian, Luc Longley.

Coincidence gives the Warriors another 7-foot center from down under, Andrew Bogut, every bit as incidental as was Longley. And that, my friends, is where the comparisons should end.

The Lakers team that held the record of 69 wins was not any of the Magic-Kareem-Worthy teams but the one with Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, made most notable for the sad, early departure of a spent Elgin Baylor.

When the Bulls were going after the Lakers' mark, there was not nearly the noise, and there was no question about the Bulls' greatness. It was already established by three of the six championships.

It was not necessary to ask Michael Jordan or Phil Jackson, now with the numbers on their side, if they were better than those Lakers. Assume the obvious.

The Warriors seem to need an extra authentication, like another merit badge or sleeve chevron, to demonstrate they are not flukes or freaks or some kind of happy accident.

They are what they are. And the Bulls will always be what the Bulls were, the team against which all others must be measured.

[ppdd]

kampihan na! Go Spurs!

[darksoulriver]

LET THE PLAYOFFS BEGINS....

 

it will be a disaster for GSW if they failed to advance to 2nd round!

[banned31]

clips vs blazers best series for me

[spicycurry30]

Depending on how severe that ankle injury to steph curry is, that would dictate how far warriors will go

Edited April 16, 2016 by spicycurry30

[k0b3]

I'll go for the GWS all the way to the finals

Edited April 21, 2016 by k0b3

[katsu]

CAVS!

[Guiness]

new Sacramento Kings Logo.

 

 

 

I don't really think the logo they are putting out is new because the design is the same as the one they had in the 80's. The only difference was the color scheme. So it would be an old logo that was recycled to sort of serve as a retro look.

 

 

This was their logo back in the 80's. Same design different color scheme

[Jon Don]

If Blazers and Pacers really happen, then the rest of the (US) country will start talking about NFL off-season more.

[BaklaKaBa II ?!?!]

it doesnt matter whos going to win between tor/mia, cle will beat them easily..

gsw vs okc is the matchup i want to see..

[MTC Hunter]

nice game OKC for beating GSW on their game 1 of Western Finals

Edited May 18, 2016 by MTC Hunter