Warriors fastest in NBA history to 50 wins
ATLANTA • Stephen Curry pumped a fist, wagged a finger and even gave a little shimmy with his shoulders.
Chalk up No. 50 for the Golden State Warriors.
On a night when Curry scored 36 points — just another day at the office — the Warriors became the fastest team in NBA history to reach 50 wins in a season with a 102- 92 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
They surpassed the 199596 Chicago Bulls, who needed one more game to reach the milestone. Of course, that’s the team Golden State is chasing for one of the league’s most iconic marks. Seventy-two wins. “It’s really cool,” Klay Thompson, the other half of the “Splash Brothers,” said Monday. “Just being in the conversation with that Bulls team, it’s humbling.”
The Warriors (50-5) squandered a 23- point lead in the third quarter, falling behind Atlanta early in the fourth. But they bounced back.
“We’re staying in the moment,” Curry said. “It’s a special group, and we understand the potential we have, but let’s not get ahead of our- selves. Fifty wins is great, but we’ve got to keep plugging away and staying hungry, because no one wants to talk about that in June.”
Indeed, a second- straight championship is the only way to make this a truly successful season, but the pursuit of Chicago’s record — accomplished during the height of Michael Jordan’s six- titles- in- eight- years dynasty — has provided quite an intriguing side plot to the regular season.
On their last long road trip of the season, the Warriors have bounced back from their worst loss of the season, a 137105 drubbing at Portland last Friday. They knocked off the Clippers the following night, then made the cross-country trek to Atlanta to face the struggling Hawks.
Chicago’s record of 72-10 will be very much in reach. Seventeen of the Warriors last 24 games are at home, where Golden State is 24- 0 this season. There are still two games left at San Antonio ( 47- 9), which is also having a remarkable season and trails by just 3 1/2 games in the Western standings, and two other tough road contests at Dallas and Memphis.