{"id":15333,"date":"2015-11-26T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/warriors-aim-high-after-historic-start\/"},"modified":"2015-11-26T09:02:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-26T17:02:00","slug":"warriors-aim-high-after-historic-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/warriors-aim-high-after-historic-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors aim high after historic start"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. <\/strong>\u2014 Even though he hasn\u2019t been in his usual spot on the bench, ailing coach Steve Kerr has contributed plenty to Golden State\u2019s record start.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, his defending champion Warriors routed the Los Angeles Lakers 111-77 to become the first team in NBA history to begin a season 16-0. Hours earlier, Kerr offered his thoughts \u2014 then spent the game behind the scenes still recovering from a pair of back operations as interim coach Luke Walton led the squad to its latest win.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been easy to be away as he heals. Kerr\u2019s message focused on Golden State\u2019s core values:<\/p>\n

Joy. Mindfulness. Compassion. Competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just reminded everybody, he put them up on the white board before we started shootaround and he reminded the guys what those values were,\u201d Walton said. \u201cHe emphasized to them how proud he was watching them, because we\u2019re hitting all four of those values. The first one and the most important one is probably joy. He wants us having fun. It\u2019s a long season, this game\u2019s meant to be fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we hit those four things we\u2019re not only very tough to beat, but we\u2019re very fun to watch, we\u2019re very fun to coach, we\u2019re very fun to be around, and he just told the guys how happy he was that they\u2019re continuing to do those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no doubt these Dubs are the league\u2019s most entertaining team, having plenty of fun as they chase far more than this sizzling start in November.<\/p>\n

Kerr challenged this group to take it to another level this season and not settle for being the champs, acknowledging the Warriors will get everybody\u2019s best shot in every city and at home.<\/p>\n

Golden State took that to heart, determined to show that last season was no fluke for a championship-starved franchise that captured its first NBA crown in 40 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s boggling my mind what this whole team does,\u201d said former Warriors star Jason Richardson, who happened to be honored on the record-setting evening. \u201cYou always wanted for this organization to be in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kerr, mindfulness means not relying on just talent to outdo an opponent or focusing on individual marks. Compassion is for each other and the game of basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach has been great, even behind the scenes. You can tell Luke is kind of an extension from him,\u201d guard Klay Thompson said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to hear from him again just to reiterate what we\u2019re all about. That\u2019s what\u2019s carried us over the top and we want to continue to do those four things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next team with a chance to beat Golden State will be the Suns on Friday in Phoenix. After that, the Warriors return home to host Sacramento on Saturday. They are 19-4 in the second game of back-to-backs dating to last season, including 4-0 this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far we\u2019ve been unblemished and done everything we need to do to get 16 wins. Hope to make that 17 on Friday,\u201d said NBA MVP Stephen Curry, who rested the entire fourth quarter and still had 24 points and nine assists. \u201cThere most likely will come a time we take a loss and have to deal with the emotions of that, just like we have in years past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Warriors surpassed the 15-0 starts by the 1948-49 Washington Capitols and 1993-94 Houston Rockets. Golden State was already the first defending champion to start this well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s going real well, keep my fingers crossed,\u201d Warriors ambassador Al Attles said of this special team, gesturing by crossing his fingers on both hands. \u201cI do the best thing: sitting up here watching them. Keep fingers crossed nobody gets hurt and just keep on going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kobe Bryant was limited to four points on 1-for-14 shooting to match the worst-shooting performance of his career in a game when he had at least one basket. He figures Golden State might need something to happen to keep things going at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have some kind of internal conflict thing, keeps the team on edge,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cBecause if not it becomes so easy you just kind of coast, you kind of fall into a malaise.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t been a problem so far.<\/p>\n

The Warriors want to show they\u2019re here to stay and poised to push well beyond that 67-win season of a year ago that ended with the franchise\u2019s first title since 1975.<\/p>\n

A sellout crowd of 19,596 that was really closer to 20,000 with standing-room-only ticket sales loved every minute of the latest milestone.<\/p>\n

What might be next \u2014 a record 33-game winning streak or 72 total wins?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything\u2019s possible,\u201d Walton said. \u201cEventually we will lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

No celebration, not yet. No tattoos to commemorate this accomplishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not \u2018cause if we get 16-0 tattooed in there and we don\u2019t win an NBA championship, who cares about them 16 games?\u201d forward Draymond Green said. \u201cAt the end of the day it\u2019s 16 wins in the month of November.\u201d<\/p>\n

But everybody involved knows full well that Kerr\u2019s fingerprints are all over this record.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere it can possibly be,\u201d Green said. \u201cWhat he\u2019s done, with this organization, he\u2019s kind of helped set a standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walton echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we do,\u201d he said, \u201cSteve has his hands on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 Even though he hasn\u2019t been in his usual spot on the bench, ailing coach Steve Kerr has contributed plenty to Golden State\u2019s record start. On Tuesday night, his defending champion Warriors routed the Los Angeles Lakers 111-77 to become the first team in NBA history to begin a season 16-0. Hours earlier, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15333"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}