Feel-Good Warriors Now Under Enormous Pressure to Win NBA Title

At the close of a regular season in which the Golden State Warriors have made basketball mastery look like a whole lot of fun, the real work of delivering on their NBA championship promise begins.

These Dubs have faced pressure before, but not like this.

They had to prove they could play to the potential of a highly talented roster early this season and, in so doing, validate the controversial decision to replace head coach Mark Jackson with Steve Kerr. Golden State alleviated that pressure almost immediately, rocketing out to a 23-3 start on the strength of elite play on both ends that was as effective as it was entertaining.

In the ensuing months, the Warriors adopted a style of play that was joyously dominant. They destroyed opponents by huge margins, oftentimes toying with them for quarters at a time before blowing contests open with staggering stop-and-score runs.

Whichever hacky cliches you liked—Golden State was using cheat codes, the Warriors looked like men among boys, etc.—they all applied.

But now, with the playoffs right around the corner, the real pressure begins.

That pressure is tied directly to the Warriors' supreme regular season. Treat a league of motivated professionals like overmatched amateurs for six months, and a championship becomes the natural expectation. Obliterate the regular season, and you're supposed to crush the playoffs.

Nothing less than the full weight of history is pressing down on the Warriors.

Benjamin Hoffman of The New York Times noted that 13 of the 16 teams in league history who have won at least 65 games in a season went on to win championships: "The Golden State Warriors, who have looked virtually incapable of losing in the regular season, will enter the NBA playoffs as the team to beat. And given the teams that have performed as well in the past, they may want to get ready to celebrate."

If the Warriors manage a 2-2 split in their final four contests, they'll hit that magic 65-win mark.

Even if they don't get there, their per-game point differential of plus-10.2 marks them as an even more likely title winner.

That differential is the eighth-best in NBA history, according to Basketball-Reference.com, and of the seven teams to exceed it in the past, six of them won rings.

Year	Team	Differential	Result
1971-72	Los Angeles Lakers	+12.28	Won Title
1970-71	Milwaukee Bucks	+12.26	Won Title
1995-96	Chicago Bulls	+12.24	Won Title
1971-72	Milwaukee Bucks	+11.16	Lost Conf. Finals
1996-97	Chicago Bulls	+10.8	Won Title
1991-92	Chicago Bulls	+10.44	Won Title
2007-08	Boston Celtics	+10.26	Won Title
2014-15	Golden State Warriors	+10.22	?

The only club that didn't win a championship after posting a per-game differential better than the Warriors' plus-10.2 was the 1971-72 Milwaukee Bucks, who logged the fourth-best such figure of all time. They fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals that year, a squad whose plus-12.28 differential was the largest in league history.

If the Warriors don't win the championship this year, they'll be the best regular-season team in more than three decades to fall short.

There's nothing like the prospect of being viewed as a historic disappointment to pile on the pressure.

History aside, there's also the future to consider—a future that, according to logic and the Warriors themselves, may never be as good as the present.

It's hard to watch this team without noticing a special lightning-in-a-bottle quality. Put simply, everything has gone well this season.

Team health has been excellent. Andrew Bogut and Stephen Curry have missed a combined 17 games this season—not bad for a duo with checkered injury pasts. The team's lone significant health setback, David Lee's strained hamstring, opened the door for Draymond Green to log major minutes during the first two months of the regular season.

Noah Graham/Getty Images

The result: Green's confidence and production skyrocketed, and he's now an elite defensive star who'll likely command a max contract this offseason. You know things have gone well when losing an All-Star for weeks at a time indirectly improves the rotation.

Lead assistant Alvin Gentry, the architect of the league's second-best offense, is almost certain to field head coaching offers this summer as well. His departure wouldn't necessarily doom the offense, but it would change the coaching mix that has led to such a beautiful system this year.

Green knows how perfectly things have come together, and he's smart enough to appreciate that rarity, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe:

"

This is a special group, a special bond, so let's make the best of it, because this team will probably never be together again. That's just the nature of this business. One addition, one subtraction, and the team isn't together no more. So take advantage of it while you've got it because I'm sure this team will never be together again. It's a fun time. One of the funnest times of my life. Live in the moment.

"

The moments are about to get bigger, which might make it hard for the Warriors to keep the wisdom of Green's perspective in mind.

The Warriors must know (somewhere, deep down) that it's almost statistically impossible for them to be this great again. There's a reason only seven teams have been more dominant on a per-game basis than Golden State this year: It's really, really hard to be that good.

For that reason, it's not at all unreasonable to assume the Warriors have reached a peak this season.

That creates a unique urgency. The Warriors must deliver on the promise they've shown. They must capitalize on the perfect chemistry and remarkable good fortune they've enjoyed on the health front.

They need to become the champion their regular season suggests they are.

Ben Margot/Associated Press

There are other squads for whom falling short of a championship would be a disappointment. The San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers both have realistic title aspirations, and they're operating on ring-or-bust settings as well.

But if the Warriors fail to finish the season with a Larry O'Brien Trophy—especially this season, with all its excitement and excellence—it would be a more bitter failure than any other NBA team could possibly suffer.

The Dubs have never dealt with pressure like that.

Here's hoping they're ready for it.

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