Warriors News: Big Reason Why Warriors Should Chase Record Over Rest

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has gone on record as saying that rest matters more to him than the record for wins in a season does, but that doesn’t mean the team should stop going for a record. In fact, they might have to go for the record simply because there’s a team that is still close to them in the standings.

Bleacher Report recently released a video featuring featured columnists. On the panel were Stephen Nelson, Howard Beck, and Ric Bucher. But it was Beck who might have had the most interesting thought process behind all of this talk about whether rest or record is the most important thing.

Howard Beck: “Well, I think rest can be important and might be important, and I think the record is frankly unimportant. But, that said, I still want the Warriors to go all out here for a simple reason. It’s not about beating the 95-96 Bulls, it’s about beating the 2015-16 San Antonio Spurs who are still right on their heels. They’re only three games back. If you let up now, if you start trying to get a little bit cute about resting, which I do think has merit, you might have the Spurs catch you.”

There’s no denying the veracity of his claims. It’s all spot-on. As it currently stands, the Warriors are just 3½ games up on the Spurs for the top spot in the Western Conference. That is reason alone to get the record since, in the end, getting the record might be the only thing that comfortably wins them the conference itself.

We’ll see if Steve Kerr sticks to his rest over record philosophy, but Beck does have the right mindset here. The record is unimportant, but with homecourt advantage meaning so much, and with the Spurs so close to them in the standings, the Warriors might not have a choice here. They might have to shoot for the record and try to get rest when they can.