The 2014–15 Golden State Warriors season was the 69th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and their 53rd in the San Francisco Bay Area. On May 14, 2014, the Warriors hired Steve Kerr to a five-year, $25 million deal to become the team's new head coach, succeeding Mark Jackson, who was fired eight days earlier.[1] It was the first head coaching job for Kerr, with a prior NBA background as a five-time NBA champion guard who set an all-time career record for accuracy in three-point shooting (.454). Kerr's extensive background experience also entailed his service as president and general manager for the Phoenix Suns basketball team from 2007 to 2010 and operating as an NBA broadcast analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT). The team also signed point guard Shaun Livingston[2] and guard Leandro Barbosa[3] during the off-season.
Under Kerr’s first year at the helm, the Warriors won their first five games before going on a 16 game winning streak from November 13 to December 14, to shoot the record to a 21–2 start to the season, their best start in franchise history at the time. On January 21, the team established a new franchise record of 17 straight home wins, extending the record to 19 before losing to Derrick Rose-led Chicago Bulls on January 27. With their win against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 24, they clinched the Pacific Division for the first time since the 1975–76 season, also tying the franchise record for road wins in a season with 24. On March 28, the Warriors won their 60th game and clinched the best record in the Western Conference and set a franchise record for regular season wins, surpassing the previous win of 59 games set by them during the 1975-76 season.
In what would ultimately turn out to be the Warrior's breakout season, the team finished the 2014–15 regular season garnering a league-best record of 67–15.[4] They became the tenth NBA team to win 67 games in a season and finished with a home record of 39–2, the second-best in NBA history, alongside a road record of 28–13. The Warriors also ranked first in defensive efficiency for the season and second in offensive efficiency, barely missing the mark that the Julius Erving-led Sixers achieved by being first in both categories. On May 4, 2015, Stephen Curry was named the 2014–15 NBA Most Valuable Player, the first Warrior since Wilt Chamberlain in 1960 to be bestowed with the honor.
In the playoffs, the Warriors swept the Anthony Davis-led New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs, dismantled the Marc Gasol-led Memphis Grizzlies in six games in the second round, and dispatched the James Harden-led Houston Rockets in five games in the Western Conference Finals. The team advanced to their first NBA Finals since 1975, finding themselves pitted up against the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers. In the ensuing years of the Warriors' successive reign in establishing themselves as the NBA's most dominant force, the Cavaliers emerged as their perennial opponents in each of the subsequent three successive NBA Finals, sparking a fiercely contested league rivalry that developed and lasted between the two teams over the next 3 Finals series matchups. After Golden State fell behind 2–1 in the series, head coach Steve Kerr gave swingman Andre Iguodala his first start of the season, replacing center Andrew Bogut in Game 4. The Warriors' small lineup (which came to be known as the Death Lineup) helped turn the series around.[5] The Warriors won the last three games and the series in six, winning their first NBA championship title in 40 years and their fourth in franchise history.[6][7] Iguodala was named Finals MVP, becoming the first player in NBA history to win the award without starting a single regular season game.[8]
The team registered a grand total of 83 victories throughout the season, a commendable achievement that ranks as the third highest in NBA history where they went an aggregate total of 83–20 encompassing both regular season and playoff matches. Moreover, Kerr became the first rookie head coach to win an NBA title since Pat Riley during the 1981–82 season.[9]
Numerous Warriors players set individual records over the course of the season. Stephen Curry won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, the first Warriors player to win since Wilt Chamberlain in the 1959–60 NBA season, when the franchise was still located in Philadelphia. He also broke his own NBA record for made three-pointers in a season of 272, finishing with 286. On January 23, 2015, Klay Thompson broke the NBA record for most points scored in a quarter with 37, finishing the game with a career high 52 points. Head Coach Steve Kerr’s 67 wins with the Warriors set the NBA record for most wins by a rookie head coach. Curry and Thompson, dubbed the "Splash Brothers", broke the single-season record for most three-pointers made by a pair of teammates. Both also made the All-Star team, Curry as a starter and Thompson as a reserve. Together, they sank 525 three-pointers over the course of the season, smashing the prior NBA record of 484 set by themselves during the 2013–14 season.
The Warriors did not have a pick in the 2014 NBA draft.
