Warriors Not Chasing History This Time
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – The Golden State Warriors have made it a habit of rewriting the NBA history book over the last few seasons.
Dozens of records have fallen as the team has been the league's most successful franchise on the court.
Nowhere was the quest for history more apparent than during the 2016-2017 season when the Warriors were very public about their desire to set a new NBA regular season win record of 73 games.
The sweet taste of history turned soured when Golden State blew a 3-1 NBA Finals series lead to the Cleveland Cavs and watched their NBA crown slip away.
Now, the Warriors have a historic 14-0 record in this year's playoffs. They are two games away from being the first team in NBA history to achieve perfection at the highest level of competition.
So is this team on a quest again?
"We want 15-0," said head coach Steve Kerr on the eve of Game 3 of the NBA Finals. "Are we 14-0 right now? We want 15-0. We literally never once mentioned 16-0. To me it's a miracle that it even is a possibility. It's so hard to do. But we're here."
"We're most focused on what happened last year in terms of being up 2-0 and we came here (to Cleveland) and the series shifted. That's the important lesson not any historical benchmarks."
Kerr was asked if a characteristic of greatness is not shying away from such a historic record.
"I don't know," he said. "Again we don't talk about it. They (the team) may talk about it internally, but it's definitely not something we are focused on."
When Steph Curry was asked, his answer was much the same.
"We have a huge hurdle to get over tomorrow (Game 3)," Curry said. "Game 3's (in the Finals) have been rough for us. Historically, especially in this building."
"To give ourselves a chance at even coming close to thinking about that (16-0) we need to really, really just lock in and give every effort we have on tomorrow and just how hard this 48 minutes is going to be to really seize control of the series."
"We've talked about it before. 16-0 doesn't matter in any stretch of the imagination unless it is a close out game and that is the opportunity in front of us."
Was going for 73 wins last season a mistake?
"In the moment obviously that was the decision we talked about and discussed as a group," Curry said. "We had to answer questions (about the win record) from the media from January on."
"There may have been a little mental fatigue when it comes to just how much it took to get that 73 done and then restart and having to go through the playoffs. But honestly, I don't regret those decisions at all."