Warriors go 14-0

They advance to a flawless 14-0, tying the 1957-1958 Boston Celtics for the best start to a season by a defending champion, and are two more wins away from setting an National Basketball Association record for most wins to start a season. It was Golden State’s 14th win without a loss, one short of the best season start first established by the Washington Capitols of 1948-49 and equaled by the Houston Rockets in 1993-94.

Curry, despite missing eight of his 11 three-point attempts, had 27 points to lead the Warriors, who improved to 8-0 at home this season and 26-0 in regular-season games since the Bulls’ last visit.

For the second straight night, the Golden State Warriors were challenged.

The Golden State Warriors recorded their 13th straight victory to start the National Basketball Association season by fighting back from a big deficit to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 124-117 in a Western Conference thriller last night.

“It’s a motivational tool for us”, Warriors backup Shaun Livingston said of the season-opening streak.

We don’t even need to speak about the occasionally prickly interviews he gives because, as much as that adds to who he is, it doesn’t take place on the court. If it weren’t for one or two plays in game one, the Warriors would have been on the brink of defeat by game 4. Can the Nuggets be the team that stops them from reaching the record? “I enjoy it when they say, ‘Ah, they small, let’s go inside.’ I think that’s playing right into our hands”. “You never know if this opportunity will come back again”.

The Warriors go for 15 wins in a row Sunday night, and they’ll have to descend about 2 miles in order to reach Pepsi Center’s mile-high altitude. “This is not how you, as a coach, design it. But I did like seeing the toughness that we had to reveal in the fourth quarter”. Per SportVU tracking data, Curry is tallying 2.9 secondary assists per game.

The Warriors are admirably balanced with Klay Thompson in – you guessed it – the greatest shooting backcourt ever, and arch-versatile Draymond Green, a 6-7, 245-pound power forward they put on Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Chris Paul.

It’s a different kind of finish every night but the same result. Assistant coach Luke Walton has guided the team in Kerr’s absence.

“It’s very impressive”, Walton said. They are 20-year-old kids and I love coaching them. They play harder. They make that extra pass. They make that extra rotation. “When it’s winning time, it’s incredible how well our guys rise to the occasion and bring home the win”.

With the small lineup, teams are scoring and are having a lot of success. Listed at 6-7, last season’s Defensive Player of the Year runner-up has been even better so far this year and looks set to make his first All-Star team if his form holds.

Jimmy Butler had 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Bulls in the second game of a four-game road trip. One night after dropping in 8-of-9 from deep in a fourth-quarter comeback win over the Clippers, the Piranha Squad threw in three treys in the final minutes, one by Curry to take a lead and two by Barnes to finishing the Bulls. But Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Festus Ezeli came off the bench to provide a few much-needed energy. Certainly, for the Warriors or any team employing such a group, it’s not sustainable over 48 minutes.

“It’s wonderful, that’s history right there”, he said. “That’s bigger than any of us here”.