It’s time for multidimensional Warriors Math, which is easy enough once you get comfortable with the Advanced Stephen Curry Algorithm:
Curry + teammates + focus = history happening before our eyes.
Or to put it practically: After the Warriors beat Phoenix on Wednesday to hit the All-Star break with a 48-4 record, they kept themselves on a direct path to win at least 72 games this season.
Which would tie the 1995-96 Bulls for the best record in NBA history, of course.
And I should emphasize the “at least 72” part of this, because, barring severe injury news, 72 is a conservative estimate for the Warriors at this point.
In fact, over their last 82 regular-season games dating to February 2015, the Warriors are … 72-10.
Oh, it all also points to the Warriors repeating as champions — that’s just assumed for any team that can back up a 67-victory title season with a 70-plus campaign.
Yes, the Warriors are making the championship issue just one piece of their epic journey through the record books, and that is saying something only a handful of NBA teams have ever done.
We know the Warriors are the best team in the league in this era; the question is how this Warriors edition will measure against every great team in the history of the league.
So far, pretty good.
Let’s take a run through more detailed reasons for my strong belief that the Warriors will win 72 or more games this season …
I think they will do it.
And if the Warriors go 41-0 at Oracle Arena, it will be the gateway to 72 or 73 victories overall, because that’s how math works.
So far, the Warriors are 24-0 at Oracle, with many of their toughest home games in the rearview mirror, and have won 42 in a row at home dating to January 2015.
If you count their remaining 17 home games as probable victories, that puts the Warriors at 65 presumed victories without even counting their remaining 13 road games.
Under this scenario, if they go just 7-6 in those remaining roadies, the Warriors would finish at 72-10.
And remember, they have a 24-4 road record right now, so 7-6 is quite conservative.
The key points: The Warriors want to make sure they have home-court advantage over the Spurs in a potential Western Conference finals and also want to set up a Spurs-Oklahoma City conference semifinal clash.
That way the Warriors would have to beat only one of those two teams, not both.
The Spurs are on pace to win about 70 games; that means the Warriors have every motivation to win more than that.
They have a tough six-game trip right after the All-Star break — at Portland, at the Clippers (on a back-to-back), at Atlanta (flying across country with only one day off), at Miami, at Orlando (on a back-to-back) and then at Oklahoma City on Feb. 27 to close their February schedule.
The Warriors could lose two times on that trip and still come back home with at least 50 victories.
With 24 left to play. The breakdown: 17 at home, seven on the road, and you know what I think they will do in those 17 Oracle games.
My guess is that once it’s right in front of them, Curry, Green, Klay Thompson and even Steve Kerr (a member of that Bulls team) will eagerly accept this as a competitive challenge.
Go after the Bulls’ record, or not? Of course the Warriors will go after it.
What better way to stay sharp than to chase Michael Jordan into April?
I’m not suggesting that Kerr will push his players too hard just to go after a record; he will give Curry, Green and others a game off here or there, no doubt.
I’m saying this team is so good that it can handle all of that, maybe lose a game here or there when a star or two is resting, and still get to 72 victories.
Or one more. That’s what the Curry Algorithm says, and I never argue with that kind of math.
Read Tim Kawakami’s Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami. Contact him at tkawakami@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5442. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/timkawakami.
