As the Warriors face the Brooklyn Nets tonight they sit on the edge of team history.
One more win and they match their longest winning streak in team history of 11 games set during the 1971-72 season, not to mention the completion of their first ever undefeated seven game Eastern road trip.
Throw in the win over the Nuggets in Denver that helped spark this current streak and the road total during this run could rise to eight.
That in itself is why attempting to find any similarities between this year’s Warriors team and that Golden State team from yesteryear is a futile exercise.
The ’71-72 Warrior squad led by current broadcaster Jim Barnett along side Nate Thurmond, Cazzie Russell and Jeff Mullins book ended their 11 game winning streak with road wins, but only after notching six of seven wins at home in between and against less than stellar opposition.
Digging even further, one can see the quality wins this year’s team has achieved during the streak trumps almost all the quality victories from the ’72 team, as Carl Steward remarked yesterday.
“You have to respect any winning streak that long, but to be frank, it’s not an eye-popper when you dissect it. Only two of the victories came against teams with a winning record at the time the Warriors played them”
Just in the past two weeks the Warriors have notched impressive victories over Western conference foes such as the Pacific Division leading Los Angeles Clippers and at the time the second place Phoenix Suns.
The road wins over the defending champion Miami Heat and the buzzer-beater win over the Atlanta Hawks the next night on a back-to-back swing are just as powerful.
“Five of the nine wins have come against teams with winning records at the time the Warriors played them — Denver, the L.A. Clippers, Phoenix, Miami and Atlanta. Six of the nine wins have come on the road. One of those road wins came against the two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat. In short, it’s just a far, far more impressive streak”, remarked Steward.
If there’s any thing more impressive about the ’71-72 Warrior team is the fact they completed 3 back-to-back’s while on their way to the 11 straight, as compared to only a possible 2 for the current Warriors.
The competition and the talent faced back then, however, just doesn’t equal the same level as now.
Maybe this is highlighted by the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers were not one of the Warriors victims during that streak. Why?
That year would be the season the Lakers led by Jerry West would win their infamous 33 in a row.
Still, it’s a disservice to not pay homage to that Warriors team from so long ago that performed so well, regardless of the competition.
So, lets look at how their streak unfolded.
The ’71-72 Warriors, coming off a pedestrian 18-19 record, began their streak as they were ending a four game road trip with wins at the Cincinnati Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) and the Detroit Pistons.
They then were able to notch their next seven victories at the cozy confines of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Arena, stay for a one day trip to Texas to beat the Houston Rockets and a later odd neutral site victory in San Diego over the New York Knicks.
Interspersed in between were wins over the bottom half teams of the NBA: the Buffalo Braves (now the LA Clippers), Portland Trail Blazers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Baltimore Bullets (now the Washington Wizards).
The one shining win would be a commanding 128-106 victory over the Eastern Conference leading Boston Celtics.
The team would conclude the historic streak with road victories over the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers before the Chicago Bulls would end the streak 110-105 in the Windy City.
The elder streak would propel the ’71-72 Warriors to an impressive 51-31 record that season before bowing out to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.
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