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NBA

Scottie Pippen calls for a reality check regarding the Warriors

Send Steph Curry and co. back to the 95-96 season in a time machine and the Dub nation would come undone in a 4-game series reckons the NBA legend.

Michael Jordan (left) and Scottie Pippen (centre) during the Bulls' heyday

The dominant Chicago Bulls team of 1995-96 would sweep the NBA's current kings Golden State in a seven-game series, Hall of Famer and former Bulls point guard Scottie Pippen said.

'Bulls in four (games),' Pippen said in an interview on the 'The Dan Patrick Show' radio show when asked which team would win such a hypothetical showdown.

Pippen teamed with Michael Jordan to lead the 1995-96 Bulls to the record 72 regular-season wins that the Warriors are now chasing.

Pippen said he thought he would have the task of guarding reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry while Jordan would likely guard Klay Thompson.

'I think that my size and length would bother (Curry) a little bit,' said Pippen, who also declared that he could limit Curry to 'fewer than 20 points.'

Pippen teamed with Jordan to help the Bulls win six NBA titles, including three in a row from 1996 to '98. After going 72-10 in the 1995-96 regular season they beat the Seattle SuperSonics in the NBA Finals.

At 68-8 the Warriors need five wins in their last six games to break the Bulls' record of 72 wins.

Golden State coach Steve Kerr, who also played on the Bulls' 72-win team, says the record chase is taking a toll on the Warriors, just as it did on the Bulls.

'I do think that the constant questions and talk about all the stuff -- whether it's the home wins streak or the record or whatever -- I think all that stuff does take its toll whether the players know it or not or whether it's a conscious thing or not,' Kerr said Saturday, a day after the Warriors suffered their first home defeat of the season with a 109-106 loss to the Boston Celtics.

'I think the whole focus now the last six games is let's just play well,' Kerr said. 'Let's just be us, and let's make hard cuts and set good screens and be crisp offensively and smart defensively.

'And whatever happens, happens.'