OAKLAND, Calif. — The Golden State Warriors set an NBA record with their 73rd regular-season win Wednesday night, riding Stephen Curry’s 46 points to a 125-104 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Tuning up for a first-round matchup with the eighth-seeded Houston Rockets in the Western Conference playoffs, the Warriors (73-9) surpassed the 72-win total of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, a mark Golden State equaled Sunday in San Antonio.
The Warriors, who dispatched the Rockets in five games in the Western Conference finals last year en route to their first NBA title since 1975, swept the three-game series from Houston this season.
The Grizzlies (42-40) had a chance to move up a spot in the Western playoff ladder with a win, but they finished as the seventh seed and will take on the Spurs in the first round.
Memphis, which reached the conference semifinals last season before losing to Golden State in six games, was swept 4-0 by the Spurs in the regular season.
Curry, who long ago broke his own NBA record for 3-pointers in a season, set the bar even higher when he crushed the Grizzlies with 10 more to push his season total to 402.
Six of Curry’s 10 3-pointers came in the first quarter, during which he exploded for 20 points and nearly outscored the Grizzlies single-handedly, lifting Golden State to a 37-23 lead.
The Grizzlies, who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, were never closer than 11 after that.
Curry’s eighth 3-pointer, which came 42 seconds into the third quarter, was his 400th of the season. No other NBA player has ever reached 300.
Curry’s 41st point, which came late in the third period, assured he would finish with a scoring average above 30.0, making him the only Warrior in history other than Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Rick Barry to hit that mark.
Curry also found time for six assists and four rebounds as the Warriors ran their home record to 39-2, one win shy of the league record that the Spurs tied this season.
The 46-point effort was Curry’s 13th of 40 or more this season.
Klay Thompson contributed 16 points, including four 3-pointers, for the Warriors, who shot 20-for-47 (42.6 percent) from beyond the arc and outscored the Grizzlies 60-24 on threes.
Harrison Barnes hit six of 10 from the field en route to 15 points, and
Draymond Green connected on four of eight on an 11-point night, helping Golden State shoot 52.9 percent for the game.
Green also led the Warriors with nine rebounds, while backup guard Shaun Livingston was tops among all players with 10 assists.
Zach Randolph had a team-high 24 points for the Grizzlies, who will enter the playoffs on a four-game losing streak.
Lance Stephenson (22), JaMychal Green (12) and Jarell Martin (11) all scored in double figures off the Memphis bench.
Stephenson went 3-for-3 on 3-pointers, but his teammates were just 5-for-21, accounting for the team’s 33.3 percentage (8-for-24).
The Grizzlies hit 42.9 percent of their shots overall.
NOTES: Warriors coach Steve Kerr noted at his pregame press conference that he would be wearing his “Scottie Pippen socks” during the game as a tribute to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, for whom he played all 82 games in the 72-win season. … Asked what he recalled about the night those Bulls topped the old record of 69 wins, set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, Kerr insisted: “I will never forget the night in Milwaukee. That was one of the highlights of my career.” … The Warriors have won 11 of the 12 meetings with Memphis since the start of the 2014-15 season, including a 4-1 triumph in the Western Conference Finals last May. … Asked before the game to assess Warriors PG Stephen Curry’s season, Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger gushed: “It’s his league. The last two years, it’s Steph Curry’s league.” … With PG Mike Conley (foot), SG Tony Allen (hamstring), SG Jordan Adams (knee), SF Brandan Wright (knee) and C Marc Gasol (foot) out of action, the Grizzlies finished the regular season with a total of 301 games lost to injury, second-most in the league behind New Orleans. … Conley finished as the NBA leader in assist/turnover ratio at 4.07 per game.