The Golden State Warriors just finished a historical 73-9 regular season, putting up the best record in the history of the NBA in the process.
Steve Kerr and Co. now head into the postseason looking to etch their names in the history books for good.
In what was a stunning season of domination, the normal stats are by now well known. The 73 wins, the first team to avoid losing consecutive games, the most road wins in NBA history, the longest home winning streak in Association history and the longest winning streak to open a season in North American sports history.
These are amazing numbers. They speak to the level of domination this Warriors squad possessed throughout the regular season.
However, there are 16 more interesting, stunning and downright ridiculous stats that make up the Warriors regular season run.
Let’s take a look at them here.
- A total of half the NFL teams from a season ago matched the Warriors nine losses with 11 of them actually losing more in a 16-game slate than the Warriors lost in 82 outings.
- Putting it in baseball terms, seven Major League Baseball teams won less games last season than the Warriors during the 2015-16 campaign, including the 68-win Oakland Athletics.
- The Cleveland Browns have lost as many games as the Warriors since late October. Cleveland stopped actually playing football in early January and only took part in 10 games to accomplish those nine defeats.
- The Philadelphia 76ers put up a 10-72 record during the regular season, finishing with four double-digit losing streaks. Golden State lost nine games all season. To put this into perspective, Philadelphia lost more games since March 21st than the Warriors did during the entire regular season.
- Sticking with Philly for a second, it’s taken them their past 314 games to accumulate 73 wins. Talk about two ends of a broad spectrum.
- Back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the Warriors failed to win more than 21 games in five consecutive seasons. In fact, they won 107 total games during a five-year span. Golden State has won 107 of their past 125 games. That’s what is so shocking. The dramatic turnaround from this perennial bottom feeder.
- Golden State’s 39 regular season home wins this season bests the number of games this franchise won in 16 of its previous 18 full seasons prior to 2012-13.
- Stephen Curry finished this past regular season with a NBA record 402 made three-pointers. To contrast eras for a second, Larry Bird led the NBA in threes in both 1985-86 and 1986-87. He made a combined 172 threes in those two seasons. In fact, Bird made 47 less three pointers in his first seven seasons that Curry nailed this year.
- Klay Thompson finished the 2015-16 regular season with 276 three-pointers. If it weren’t for Stephen Curry’s performance the past two seasons, Thompson would hold the record for most made threes in a single season. As of right now, Curry and Thompson make up the top-four spots on the all-time single season list.
- Golden State nailed another 20 three-pointers in its season-ending win over Memphis on Wednesday. That brought the team’s total to 1,077 three pointers during the regular year. In a completely different era, the team that Golden State bested with 73 wins, the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, hit 544 threes.
- Expanding that a bit further, Scottie Pippen led that Bulls team with 150 threes. He was followed in line by Steve Kerr (122) and Michael Jordan (111). Together, they hit 19 less threes than Curry alone.
- Golden State hit more threes than the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves combined. When taking into account the 678 threes Curry and Thompson combined for, that number was higher than 13 of the 29 others teams in the NBA during the regular season.
- Averaging 114.9 points per game this season, the Warriors failed to put up 100-plus points just seven times. When they did tally triple digits, the Warriors boasted a 71-4 record.
- Golden State put up 120-plus points 30 times this season. Again different eras, but the 1995-96 Bulls only accomplished that feat six times. In fact, Chicago only scored 120-plus 11 times during its three consecutive titles seasons.
- Steve Kerr boasts a 140-24 regular season record in two years as the Warriors head coach. That’s more wins than any other head coach other than Don Nelson has put up for the Warriors since 1980. He’s done it in two seasons. Kerr now ranks fourth in Warriors history with 140 wins. Fourth!
- Four of the Warriors nine losses came against teams that finished the regular season under .500. They finished 35-5 against winning teams and with a 10-1 record against the other four teams representing the top-five records in the Association.