Warriors top Mavs to go a year without regular season home loss
Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the Golden State Warriors’ last regular season loss at Oracle Arena, a 113-111 overtime result for the Chicago Bulls. A win against the Dallas Mavericks would make it not only a full year without a regular-season home loss, but also 40 straight wins to tie the second-longest home streak in NBA history. (Golden State did lose two games in last spring’s postseason, but those don’t count towards their run.) That’s four off the all-time record set by the Chicago Bulls during a streak that ran from March 30, 1995 until April 4, 1996.
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The result wasn’t quite as one-sided as Monday night’s demolition of the San Antonio Spurs, but the Warriors came away with another very convincing win against a playoff-caliber squad. Up just 65-64 on the Mavs (playing without Dirk Nowitzki on the second game of a back-to-back) after a Chandler Parsons three-pointer with 7:35 remaining in the third quarter, the Warriors closed the period with a 30-13 run and finished the night with a 127-107 win.
The game-winning stretch was started by a pair of Stephen Curry three-pointers, but it was a relatively quiet statistical night for the MVP (14 points on 4-of-11 FG, albeit with a team-best plus-26). Rather, the biggest star was Klay Thompson, who scored a season-high 45 points on 14-of-20 shooting from the field, 7-of-12 from deep, and 10-of-10 from the line.
This was not merely a case of a great shooter getting hot and knocking down shot after shot. Thompson attacked the basket and showed the skills that he has grown over the past few seasons and that could help him make his second-straight All-Star team when reserves are announced on Thursday. If you need proof that he’s an elite scorer, please note that he has as many 40-point games and four more 35-point games than Kevin Durant does so far this season. There are clear contextual factors that have led to those numbers — I’m not saying that Klay is better than KD — but they don’t change that the second Splash Brother has been absolutely terrific.
Wednesday’s victory runs Golden State’s home record this season to 22-0. The run of 40 wins at Oracle matches the Orlando Magic’s streak from March 21, 1995 until March 19 of the next year — yes, they somehow almost entirely overlapped with Chicago’s own home dominance. Perhaps the San Antonio Spurs, currently on a 33-game home streak of their own, can do something similar.
Additionally, the Warriors’ overall mark now stands at 42-4, the same record that the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls held through 46 games in their record-breaking 72-win season. It’s still too early to know if the Warriors consider it enough of a priority to chase after a new record, but the possibility remains on the table. It’s hard to imagine many basketball fans would bet against the Warriors going 30-6 or better to close out the season.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
