Could the Golden State Warriors have gone 33-0 if they had beaten the Milwaukee Bucks the first time round?
The Golden State Warriors started out 24-0, but then stumbled against the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 25. The Bucks then celebrated too much for winning an early regular season game, but I’m not salty or anything. But if the Dubs had beaten the Bucks, could they have gone 33-0, and tie the Lakers for the largest winning streak of all time?
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Before we start going through this hypothetical, let’s establish something. I am not counting the 4 final games of last season in the Warriors’ win streak. I consider the Warriors winning streak to have ended at 24 games. Counting the 4 games in last season is just kind of dumb, to be totally honest, as a “streak” implies something that was uninterrupted, and the Warriors had a historic title run and an entire offseason in-between the last 4 games of last year and the first 24 of this year.
Now, let’s get started.
So, let’s just pretend that the Warriors hadn’t gone to double overtime during the front end of a back to back, then gotten on a plane, landed in Milwaukee at 3 am, and then hadn’t lost to a well rested Bucks team (not salty at all, I assure you). So, in our new world, the Warriors beat the Bucks 135-73. Would they have been able to close out those next 8 games to get to the Lakers’ record?
Short answer: probably not
The win against the Suns was most likely guaranteed, as the Dubs were playing in their first home game in seven games, and they were finally back in Oakland. They had about 5 days to chill at home, and there was no way that the Suns could have stopped us on Wednesday. 25-0.
Next, the Bucks on the 18th. In real life, the Warriors won this game. It was close, but the Dubs won in front of their home crowd. In our fake, perfect (get it?) world, however, would the Dubs still have won? I say yes. Again, the Dubs are a rested team, and they haven’t lost a regular season game in Oracle in a loooonnnngggg time. 26-0.
After the Bucks, the Warriors would have needed to beat the Jazz (no biggie), the Cavs, the Kings (please), at the Mavs (Mark Cuban, hold this L), at the Rockets (they ain’t that good), the Hornets at home (Jermey Lin homecoming spoiled), and finally at the Lakers (it would be an honor to beat Kobe in Staples one more time). On paper, the Dubs are either better than every team in their path to 33-0, or they have enough motivation to beat them. That doesn’t really mean that they could have done it, however.
Let’s get honest, Dub Nation. The Warriors were winning games before that Bucks game, but they were not pretty. The defense wasn’t (and still isn’t) nearly as good as last year’s defense, and the offense really just lacks imagination. The Dubs had pretty much just reverted back to the Mark Jackson era of basketball, with a whole lot of iso-ball, and brief moments of good defense – but these aren’t the Warriors we know. Luckily, the Dubs have such a deep roster of talent that they were simply better than most teams that they played, and they just won the games that they should have won. But they didn’t win them convincingly, per se, or playing the Warriors basketball that Steve Kerr introduced last year.
So could the Warriors have won 33-0? On paper, yes. And maybe they would have found some extra motivation the closer and closer they got to the record, but I just couldn’t see them playing that ugly style of ball and defeating teams like the Cavs. Luckily, the Dubs looked like themselves against the Suns and late against the Bucks. Maybe it was good that they finally lost. They looked relaxed. What do you think? Could they have finished the job?