Golden State fastest 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 — in other words, just another day at the office — the Warriors became the fastest team in NBA history to 50 wins in a season with a 102-92 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
They surpassed the 1995-96 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 after Monday’s game. “Just being in the conversation with that Bulls team, it’s humbling and it’s surreal.”
The Warriors (50-5) squandered a 23-point lead in the third quarter, actually falling behind Atlanta early in the fourth. But they bounced back, as they always seem to do, tightening up on defense and riding their dynamic guard duo to another triumph.
Thompson scored 12 of his 27 points in the final period, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers. Curry chipped in with nine points, including a trey in front of the Atlanta bench that had him wiggling his shoulders.
“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 ourselves. 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 impressively from their worst loss of the season, a 137-105 drubbing at Portland last Friday. They knocked off the Clippers the following night.
