Tim Kawakami says the Warriors can most definitely go 16-0.
CLEVELAND — Can the Warriors finish off a perfect postseason and stamp themselves as the greatest winners in NBA history?
Ahead of the “Showtime” Lakers and Michael Jordan’s Bulls and everybody else? Yes. They. Can. I do not say this casually or recklessly. I’m measuring this team, in this moment, against all other landmark achievements in NBA playoff — and modern sports — history.
And if the Warriors win their next two games, they won’t just make history, they will be the team against which all historic teams are measured. The details: With Game 3 of the NBA Finals against Cleveland set for Wednesday, the Warriors are 2-0 in this series, 14-0 in the playoffs overall and just two more victories from the seminal 16-0 scenario.
No NBA team had ever gone 12-0 in a postseason before these Warriors — not the Lakers, Bulls or any other legendary group — and no team has finished an entire postseason without a loss.
Couple this with the Warriors winning 67 regular-season games and the championship two years ago, then winning a record 73 regular-season games, then losing in Game 7 of the Finals to Cleveland last year and then this season’s 67 regular-season victories, and now the march toward 16-0 …
And this Warriors team is on the threshold of a most remarkable three-season run.
Now, of course, the Warriors added Kevin Durant to the mix just this season and have tinkered with the roster here and there throughout. It’s not exactly the same team, just as Jordan’s Bulls or Bill Russell’s Celtics were not the exact same year to year.
But this Warriors run began in 2015 when Steve Kerr arrived and Stephen Curry and Draymond Green took their careers to another level, and that is when the Warriors began moving into the conversation about the NBA’s greatest teams.
And this is how you cement your place in the sports cosmos — you go 16-0 in the playoffs, if possible.
But don’t expect the Warriors to declare anything about chasing 16-0 now.
This is wise. The championship is the most important thing, and history comes after that. If the Warriors happen to lose one or two games, that will hardly destroy their season … presuming they still win the title.
But also: Only the greatest of great teams ever are faced with moments like this.
“We made that mistake by circling 73 and worrying about the wrong thing before,” Green said Tuesday, suggesting the Warriors might have lost some focus before last year’s playoffs started.
“Now (16-0) would be a great thing to do and everyone wants to make history, but I want to win four games. If that’s 4-3, it’s 4-3; if it’s 4-0, great.
“I just want to win four games. A championship is history. That’s really the only history we need.”
So the focus is on LeBron James, the Cavaliers and Game 3. And the Warriors don’t need to exaggerate the challenge against this all-time great player.
The Warriors went up 2-0 over the Cavaliers last season, then lost Game 3 here and ended up losing the series.
If the Warriors win Game 3 this year to take a 3-0 stranglehold, they will have essentially ended the possibility of a repeat disappointment.
“We want 15-0, that’s what we want,” Kerr said. “Are we 14-0 right now? We want 15-0 …
“We literally have never once mentioned 16-0. To me it’s a miracle that it’s even a possibility.”
So this is the immediate goal that leads to the epic one.
And the presence and stature of LeBron only magnifies the Warriors’ potential accomplishment.
“Game 3 has been rough for us historically, and especially in this building,” Curry said. “So to give ourselves a chance at even coming close to thinking about (16-0), we need to really, really just lock in and give every effort we have tomorrow and how hard this 48 minutes is going to be to really seize control of this series.”
OK, so the Warriors aren’t going to talk about this, but they know the history and they know what’s right in front of them.
They hear about it almost every day now, including from Magic Johnson, who recently said he thought his “Showtime” Lakers team could sweep the Warriors.
Hey, it’s all just conversation and you can’t really compare teams from different eras, with different rules, as Green noted.
“They were great in their time,” Green said of Magic’s Lakers, “we’re great in our time. Respect that.”
But the facts: The “Showtime” Lakers teams lost a total of 22 playoff games in their five title seasons, and never fewer than two in a single playoff campaign.
And in Jordan’s six championship seasons with the Bulls, Chicago lost 26 total playoff games, and also never lost fewer than two in a single campaign.
Wouldn’t 16-0 end the argument by proving that the Warriors are superior to their contemporary rivals by a larger margin than anybody else in NBA history?
“No, I don’t think it ends the argument,” Green said.
Green is probably right — there will always be arguments about things that cannot be proven, and it’s impossible to precisely weigh champions from different eras against each other.
But if the Warriors get to 16-0, they will have surpassed any single postseason turned in by Michael, Magic or Russell, and I think the Warriors want this, even if they’re not saying so.