It was a grind. Honestly, calling it a schedule feels a bit too formal for the absolute gauntlet the Golden State Warriors walked through back then. If you were watching the NBA in late 2015 and early 2016, you know the feeling. It was that "stay up until 1 AM on a Tuesday" kind of energy because you just didn't want to miss the night Stephen Curry decided to pull up from the logo. We are talking about the gs warriors 2016 schedule, a 170-day stretch of basketball that fundamentally broke how we think about the regular season.
They won 73 games. Seventy-three.
The 1995-96 Bulls were the gold standard for two decades, and suddenly, this group of guys in Northern California decided that the record wasn't just reachable—it was mandatory. But if you look closer at the calendar, you see the cracks. You see where the fatigue started to seep into the bones of a team that eventually ran out of gas three points short of a title.
The Brutal Opening Act: October and November
The season tipped off on October 27, 2015, against the Pelicans. Looking back, the league probably didn't realize they were about to witness a 24-0 start. That is nearly two months of basketball without a single "L" on the board. The schedule-makers didn't do them many favors early on, either.
They had a nasty back-to-back in early November, flying from Oakland to Sacramento and then immediately back home to face a tough Detroit squad. Most teams punt those games. Steve Kerr—well, Luke Walton at the time, since Kerr was out with back complications—didn't let them.
By the time they hit the road for a seven-game trip in late November, the hype was suffocating. This road trip was the first real test of the gs warriors 2016 schedule. It started in Salt Lake City, moved through Charlotte, Toronto, Brooklyn, Indiana, and Boston, before finally ending in Milwaukee. That Boston game on December 11 was a double-overtime thriller that probably cost them the perfect record the very next night. They flew into Milwaukee at 4 AM, tired as hell, and the Bucks were waiting with "24-1" shirts already printed. It was cold. It was calculated.
The streak died in Wisconsin.
📖 Related: Why the March Madness 2022 Bracket Still Haunts Your Sports Betting Group Chat
Managing the Winter Slump That Never Happened
January is usually when NBA teams get bored. The "dog days." For the 2015-16 Warriors, January was actually a statement month. They had a stretch where they played the Cavs, Bulls, and Spurs in the span of a week.
People forget that the Spurs were also having a historic season. San Antonio finished that year with 67 wins. On January 25, the Spurs came to Oracle Arena, and the world expected a tactical chess match. Instead, Steph and Draymond Green turned it into a track meet. The Warriors won by 30.
Key Home Stands and the Oracle Advantage
Oracle Arena was a fortress. If you were a visiting team looking at the gs warriors 2016 schedule, you basically circled the Oakland dates as an automatic loss. They didn't lose a home game until April. Think about that. From October to the end of March, they were perfect in front of that "Roaracle" crowd.
- Nov 20: Tight win against the Bulls.
- Jan 2: Draymond puts up a monster triple-double against Denver.
- Mar 7: They beat Orlando to set the record for most consecutive home wins (45).
It wasn't just about the wins; it was the psychological toll. Opposing coaches started resting their stars against Golden State. Why fly into San Francisco just to get run off the court by 25? It was a weird time for the NBA.
The Chase for 73: The Final Month
This is where the debate gets heated. Should they have rested? By late March, the Warriors were clearly exhausted. The gs warriors 2016 schedule in April was a nightmare of high-stakes matchups. They had to play the Spurs twice in the final four games.
Steve Kerr left it up to the players. "If you guys want to go for it, we'll go for it," he basically said. They chose the record.
👉 See also: Mizzou 2024 Football Schedule: What Most People Get Wrong
On April 1, they lost to the Celtics at home. It was a shock. The invincibility was gone. Then they lost to the Timberwolves a few nights later. Suddenly, they had to win out—including two games against a Spurs team that hadn't lost at home all year—just to hit 73.
They did it. Steph hit his 400th three-pointer of the season in the finale against Memphis on April 13. It felt like a championship celebration. But looking back, that final two-week push was grueling. They played four games in five nights at one point. That kind of scheduling takes a physical toll that no amount of "light years ahead" training can fix.
The Hidden Cost of the Back-to-Backs
The NBA has since tried to reduce back-to-back games, but in 2016, they were still a major part of the grind. The Warriors had 20 of them. Twenty! That is nearly a quarter of the season played on zero days of rest.
When you analyze why they fell apart in the Finals against LeBron and the Cavs, you have to look at the cumulative fatigue. Draymond Green has admitted that the chase for 73 was draining. It wasn't just the physical running; it was the mental stress of every single regular-season game being treated like Game 7 of the Finals by the media and the fans.
They couldn't just have an "off night." If they lost, it was a national headline.
Actionable Insights for Historians and Fans
If you are looking back at this season to understand how it changed the league, here is what you need to focus on:
✨ Don't miss: Current Score of the Steelers Game: Why the 30-6 Texans Blowout Changed Everything
Study the Point Differential.
The Warriors didn't just win; they blew teams out so early that the starters often sat the entire fourth quarter. This "hidden rest" is the only reason they were able to keep the pace for so long. Check the box scores for games in February 2016—you’ll see Curry playing only 30 minutes despite scoring 38 points.
The Fatigue Marker.
Look at the shooting percentages in the final five games of the gs warriors 2016 schedule. You’ll see a slight dip in the front-rim misses. That is the universal sign of tired legs. When the playoffs hit, those tired legs met a physical OKC team and then the Cavs, and the lack of "legs" in the fourth quarters of the Finals was glaring.
Schedule Comparisons.
Compare their 2016 travel miles to the 2017 season. The league actually adjusted the Warriors' travel schedule the following year because of how brutal their 2016 mid-winter road trips were.
To really grasp the magnitude of what happened, you have to watch the footage of the April 10 game in San Antonio. It was the second night of a back-to-back. The Warriors hadn't won in San Antonio in 33 straight tries. They walked into that arena, bone-tired, and handed the Spurs their only home loss of the season. That single game is the 2016 season in a nutshell: pure defiance of logic.
Keep an eye on how modern teams like the Celtics or Nuggets handle their late-season surges. Most choose rest now. The 2016 Warriors were the last team to truly "go for it" in the regular season, and we might never see a schedule handled with that much aggression again.