Lowell Cohn: The Warriors are something we've never seen before

OAKLAND - The Warriors sure made history. Rewrote the record book. Stood the NBA on its collective ear. In short, they did it.

You know what “it” is. It is 73. The Warriors won their 73rd game of this ongoing and astonishing season, won more games in a season than any team ever. Accomplished the biggest “it” there is. They won 125-104 against the bewildered Memphis Grizzlies. Killed the Grizzlies. Left nothing in doubt. Nothing to chance.

Were the Warriors dead serious about winning 73? Are you kidding?

And by winning 73 of 82 games - really? - they stormed through the gate and knocked down the front door and entered the Pantheon of great NBA teams. They're hanging around with the Celtics and Lakers and Bulls. Right now, they've taken possession of the couch.

The Bulls are most relevant. The great Chicago Bulls of 1995-1996, the Michael Jordan Bulls, won 72 games. An unimaginable number. Seventy-two is so many wins it felt like basketball gluttony for two decades. And now the Warriors have beaten 72 and made 73 the standard and, perhaps, the limit. The Warriors have created a new hallowed number.

Think about the concept of hallowed sports numbers - there are so many and they mean so much. For a long time, 60 was a hallowed number, maybe the most hallowed. It was Babe Ruth's single-season home-run record. The ultimate. Unimaginable. Eventually, 60 went away.

Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game is hallowed. And on Wednesday night near a busy freeway in East Oakland, the Warriors added another number. They hallowed 73.

The Warriors are trying for the greatest season ever. They already have the greatest regular season, and now they have to win a championship to complete the deal. If they win a championship, it will be the best championship season in NBA history. Better than the Bulls' 1995-1996 season. Of course, the Warriors have to win the title. If they do, these Warriors are in the conversation of the best team ever.

“I'm shocked that we are where we are because I know how difficult it is.” That was Steve Kerr before the game talking about being on the verge. On possibly winning No. 73, he said, “It's something that's truly great.” He should know. He was on the 72-win Bulls team.

Here's something you should understand about the Warriors' popularity, about their importance across America. The Warriors issued at least 350 media credentials for the 73-win game, the make-history game. On an ordinary night, they issue about 150, usually fewer.

To put the media crush, the national mania in perspective, the Warriors issued more credentials for Win 73 than for any game in the conference finals last season.

So, here's a question. What's so good about this Warriors team aside from the obvious fact that it's so good?

Try these.

Stephen Curry, their superstar, is a regular person. He is normal, including his size. Just plain normal. If you saw him at the Safeway vegetable department without knowing who he is, you wouldn't think, “Now, that's a basketball player.” Run into Festus Ezeli and you'd have a pretty good idea he might play hoops.

Here is Kerr on Curry, specifically on why fans go gaga over him.

“Stephen Curry does not dominate through intimidation. He dominates through skill and he looks like he could be your little brother. That's very different. Most dominant players are physical specimens, intimidating forces. I think fans can identify with Steph in particular. He's the leader of our group, of course.”

That means a superstar doesn't have to be a giant anymore. He can be regular. He can be you and me - if we could shoot and run and pass behind our backs and drive the hoop and score from downtown.

Curry has changed the game. Well, he took advantage of a change. The NBA has gone 3-point loony and Curry is the best 3-point shooter on Earth. The best there ever was. He holds the all-time, single-season record for 3s, set it Wednesday night - 402.

“He just obliterated the last record,” Kerr said. The last record was Curry's - 286.

Curry is a one-man NBA revolution. Before the game, Memphis coach Dave Joerger, his voice filled with awe, said, “The last couple of years, it's Stephen Curry's league.”

No one can disagree. Got that, LeBron James?

And then there's Klay Thompson. Great defender. Great 3-point shooter. He is quiet and self-effacing, shuns publicity, turns his eyes downward if media rush to him. He's shy, not standoffish. And he and Curry are the best-shooting backcourt of all time. Sorry, Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe.

And then there's Draymond Green. Heart of the team. Well, this great team has a collective heart. Maybe he's the fist. He is the fist who wallops the opponent and keeps his teammates angry and competitive and ready even on, say, a Tuesday night in Milwaukee.

He, too, has revolutionized basketball. Consider this. He is a power forward. In basketball numerology he is a 4. But he has changed the template of 4. He dribbles the ball up the court like a 1, the point guard. He takes 3-pointers like a 3, the small forward. Or he plays center, the 5, and often does when the Warriors go small and run opponents senseless. And he can guard positions 1 through 5. This is revolutionary.

Some of this Warriors stuff no one has seen before. And I haven't mentioned Andre Iguodala or Andrew Bogut or Harrison Barnes.

Which brings us back to reality. The Warriors have two months of basketball left. Two months if they write the right script.

“Nothing is guaranteed,” Kerr warned. Being the head coach. Getting all serious and sober. Laying down the law to his players. We respect that.