The Golden State Warriors came into this season with ludicrously high expectations and considerable pressure to succeed following a record 73-win regular season, an NBA Finals collapse to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the offseason acquisition of Kevin Durant. Their season will ultimately be decided by whether or not they win a championship, but they have at least ticked off one notable item on the list of achievements for this season. For the third season in a row, the Warriors will finish with the best record in the NBA and hold home-court advantage throughout the 2017 playoffs.

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The clinching victory occurred on Wednesday night at the West-worst Phoenix Suns. With the second-place San Antonio Spurs resting their stars for the second half and losing to the lowly Los Angeles Lakers earlier in the night, the Warriors were handed a chance to clinch the league’s best record with their 65th win of the season. A 41-18 first quarter staked them a big early advantage, and a huge performance from Stephen Curry (42 points and 11 assists) allowed them to hang on for a 120-111 win after the Suns came back to put pressure on them in the second half.

The Warriors became the first team in NBA history to win 65 games in three straight seasons and will finish up the season with three home games at Oracle Arena. As reported earlier this week, Golden State plans to get the injured Durant back for those three contests to reintegrate him into the lineup before the postseason. It’s unclear if key players will rest during those games — forwards Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala sat out the game in Phoenix on the second night of a back-to-back — but it’s fair to guess that the Warriors will want to enter the first round both rested and riding a wave of strong play. At the very least, they now have flexibility to bring Durant along slowly without jeopardizing their seeding.

In truth, the Warriors’ ongoing hot streak had changed clinching the league’s top record from unlikely several weeks ago to all but assured over the last few days. Nevertheless, Wednesday’s win took some work. That one-sided first quarter appeared to set the stage for a blowout, but the Suns rebounded with a 34-17 second period to cut the margin to just six points by the half. The problem for the Warriors was fairly apparent — with Green and Iguodala sitting, the defense lacked its usual stoutness, and with Klay Thompson starting the night cold (2-of-11 FG in the first half), the offense depended too heavily on Curry.

That formula just happened to be enough to hold off one of the league’s worst teams. Thompson found his shooting stroke in the second half to finish with 22 points on 9-of-22 shooting, and five others finished with at least eight points to help make up for the absent production.

Yet it was Curry who won this game for Golden State. His 23 first-quarter points created the lead that withstood Phoenix’s second-quarter run, and he finished with 42 points (15-of-26 FG, 8-of-13 3FG) and 11 assists in a dominant showing. Russell Westbrook and James Harden have made that kind of line seem common that season, but it’s worth noting that it was just the second time Curry has hit those numbers in his career. For everyone else, that’s a high total.

With home-court advantage locked up, the question for the Warriors becomes how to handle their last three games. In most cases, it would make sense to give every player at least one game off. But Durant’s scheduled return on Saturday adds new decisions to the situation, because it would behoove the Warriors to get their rotation in order ahead of the postseason.

Even that issue is not so pressing, though, because Golden State will face a No. 8 seed that could finish the regular season under .500 with plenty of weaknesses. In other words, they should have time to get settled no matter what.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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