OAKLAND – When someone mentioned the magic number, Draymond Green scoffed.
A few weeks ago, the Golden State Warriors set an NBA regular-season record that spawned another collection of blue and gold hats, T-shirts and banners in honor of their 73 victories.
What does it mean now?
“That does not matter,” Green, the Warriors’ emotional heartbeat, grumbled Wednesday as Game 1 of the NBA Finals rematch against the Cleveland Cavaliers looms. “Seventy three wins, it is what it is. That has nothing to do with chasing a title. This is a completely different mission.
“I said it early on, 73 wasn’t our mission coming into the season. It’s no point in us trying to tie them in and saying, ‘Oh, my God, if we don’t win a championship, what about 73?’ There’s enough pressure trying to win a championship, anyway.”
Green, with his Michigan State education and all, is correct to a large degree. If the Warriors had won 71 or 69 or 63 games during the regular season and still advanced to this precise point – with LeBron James coming to town hoping to exorcise the demons that have cursed Cleveland – it would be the same difficult challenge. The Oklahoma City Thunder, from whom the Warriors escaped in the Western Conference Finals, won 55 games in the regular season and would’ve, could’ve, should’ve been here.
But, sorry, Day-Day, as much as the Warriors may try, there’s no separating 73 from the bid to repeat.
Not now.
Without another championship banner, the record that the Warriors achieved on the final night of the regular season will be half-empty. No, it won’t come with an asterisk. They won the 73, and amazingly never had back-to-back losses (until the playoffs). But would you rather take 72 wins with a championship, as Warriors coach Steve Kerr did as one of Michael Jordan’s wing men with the Chicago Bulls or 73 without a crown?
So, fair or not, when you’ve made it to this point, 73 can’t be separated from the bigger mission.
It’s like these NBA Finals represent validation time for the Warriors. They might as well embrace it.
There’s nothing like another type of challenge – or more shade to question their greatness.
Remember, last year the Warriors beat an injury-depleted Cavaliers team in the Finals. Now do it again, with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love part of a well-rested team.
See, there’s always something more to prove.
So the worth of 73 falls right in line. Besides, as the Warriors were willing themselves back from the 3-1 hole against the Thunder, 73 actually was surely attached to their comeback. It’s like this: A team does not battle back in the manner that the Warriors did without the substance that is reflected by the consistency of 73.
In other words, you don’t win 73 without the type of resilience that has become such a mark of this specific defending champion.
As repeat MVP Steph Curry put it, reflecting on what happened against the Thunder, “We’ve been challenged physically and mentally. It’s put us on edge, for sure.”
These are not the same Warriors that toppled the Cavs last year. As 73 suggests, they’re better.
Curry, Green and Klay Thompson, their best three players, are all better, wiser and more complete.
As a group, they are more confident that they were a year ago, having earned their stripes through winning a crown and then enduring the stress that comes for a defending champion – challenges that are just as profound mentally as they are physically. They’ve taken these tests and matured.
“We’ve had to understand the importance of other teams’ mentalities coming into our arena, or going into their arena,” said Andre Iguodala, last year’s Finals MVP. “They give us their best efforts. We’ve got to be keyed and locked in every single night, because we’re the targets. I think we did a really good job of adjusting to that, taking hits and being about to battle back.
“That was kind of the epitome of the last series,” he added. “Taking a team’s best shot, being down 3 games to 1 and being able to battle back.”
That pretty much sums up what this entire season has been about for the Warriors. One chapter ended with 73, but fittingly, the chance to validate that even further awaits as the perfect challenge at the perfect time.
