Heat tip their caps to Golden State’s winning streak

The Golden State Warriors did something for the first time this season: practice following a loss. It has been two-and-a-half weeks since they set the record for the best start in history at 16-0.

The flip side to this streak ending is that everyone can relax now.

Many predicted that the Warriors would fall to the Indiana Pacers last Tuesday night, others thought the Boston Celtics would have a shot a few days later.

For as strategic as every other National Basketball Association team treats the regular season, as easy as distractions and unmotivated nights can transpire, these Warriors created playoff atmospheres in arenas.

The Warriors play the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night to complete a seven-game road trip.

“It starts with our defense”, Bucks coach Jason Kidd said.

As the Warriors kept rolling downhill over all and sundry, they left a carnage of destruction in their wake. Social media interactions – the league has more than 920 million likes and followers across all platforms – increase during the games, since more people are awake, and TV partners are putting more resources into pregame and postgame studio shows to serve their larger audiences. Small ball is now the order of the day.

As the clock neared midnight, the team bus awaited several Warriors still sitting inside the Bradley Center. The Spurs, who surgically manage their minutes throughout the regular season marathon, and added LaMarcus Aldridge, are sitting in the weeds at 20-5.

Wave loses to Mustangs, 8-3: Fan-favorite forward Ian Bennett scored twice, but that was just about it on offense for Milwaukee, which gave up four fourth-quarter goals in the road defeat. The Bucks and Warriors haters can revel in their monumental win. He also had 11 rebounds and five assists.

Hopefully this is the win that inspires the Bucks to play better. The Warriors didn’t have their legs under them.

Milwaukee were good offensively, but did their best work on the defensive end, where Golden State shot 40.9 per cent from the field and 6-of-26 from beyond the arc.

Reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry signed a four-year -million contract with the Golden State Warriors in 2012, lower than the contracts for teammates Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andrew Bogut.

Greg Monroe was the team’s top scorer with 28 points. With the 6th game being a double overtime grinder, the 7th one was set to be a challenge.

Warriors streak is now a part of contemporary sporting folklore. It’s just one loss.

Speaking of win streaks, The Bucks have a curious record as streak killers.

1971-72 Lakers – 33 game win streak ended.

2010-11 Mavericks – 12 game win streak ended. (Yes, this runs counter to the odds in the introduction.) While it’s to the team’s huge credit that they go all out every night, it also isn’t the most pragmatic strategy in the long run.

“I think we came out this season thinking we were going to be offensive minded”, guard O.J. Mayo said after practice at the team’s training facility.

If you view sports through the prism that championships are the only thing that matter, the Bucks’ victory over the Warriors on Saturday night was inconsequential. My gut tells me that people were plenty ready to see the Miami Heat’s 27-game winning streak in 2013 end much quicker than this one.