Four years ago, in superstar guard Stephen Curry’s injury-truncated third season, the Golden State Warriors went 23-43 and missed the playoffs by 13 games.

On Wednesday night, they beat the Memphis Grizzlies 125-104 to finish their regular season 73-9, breaking the Chicago Bulls’ 20-year-old NBA record for most wins in a season.

And this weekend when the playoffs begin, the Warriors will start their pursuit of a second straight championship with a series against the Houston Rockets.

Driving it all has been Curry, whose mind-blowing three-point shooting range — he was shooting 50 percent from beyond 30 feet earlier this season — is emblematic of how the game is changing. Curry’s virtuosity has also made some sports video games obsolete because he outperforms the virtual players. NBA 2K gameplay director Mike Wang told All Things Considered‘s Ari Shapiro:

“In real life, you’ve got to take good shots,” Wang said. “You know, with Steph, he’s, like — he could … shoot in double teams with two guys draped all over him and still hit the shot. So that’s something that we need to go back to the drawing board and see if we can get that back into our game.”

Curry led the scoring Wednesday night with 46 points, including 10-19 three-point shooting.

“I just try to keep pushing myself and try not to have any limits,” Curry told ESPN’s Doris Burke after the game. He said his teammates, their focus and their eagerness to take on the challenge is what got the Warriors the record.

Golden State is also the first NBA team to make it through a season without losing two games in a row, and without losing twice to the same team, ESPN reported.

There had been some question about how aggressively the Warriors would pursue the wins record — they locked up home-court advantage through the playoffs a week ago and could have rested their players ahead of the playoffs — but the players were eager to make history.

“I’m only 26. When I’m 36, I’ll be looking to rest more,” guard Klay Thompson told reporters after the team’s April 7 win.

Curry also was all-in on the record chase, CSN Chicago reported:

“We have an opportunity to do something that has never been done before in history,” Curry said. “So many great players have suited up since the NBA began, and for us 15 guys to say we’ve accomplished something as a group that’s never been done before, that’s remarkable. So, we earned the right to have a 48-minute game to eclipse that mark and we have to go out and finish the job and do it the right way.”

Warriors coach Steve Kerr was a bench player on the 1995-1996 Bulls team that previously held the record, and was asked about the two seasons after Wednesday’s game.

“It feels different as a coach than it did as a player,” Kerr said, but he added that the two seasons went the same way — “lose one, get angry, win ten.”

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The Detroit Tigers’ season-ticket holder broke his personal record on Monday — catching five foul balls in a single game. His secret? Showing up on foul weather days means fewer fair-weather fans.

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Jordan Spieth couldn’t bear to watch, turning his head before another shot splashed into Rae’s Creek. Moments later, Danny Willett looked up at the large leaderboard at the 15th green and couldn’t believe what he saw.

This Masters turned into a shocker Sunday, right down to the green jacket ceremony.

Spieth was in Butler Cabin, just like everyone expected when he took a five-shot lead to the back nine at Augusta National. Only he was there to present it to Willett, who seized on Spieth’s collapse with a magnificent round that made him a Masters champion.

“You dream about these kind of days and things like that, but for them to happen … it’s still mind-boggling,” Willett said.

It was a nightmare for Spieth, especially the par-3 12th hole. Clinging to a one-shot lead, he put two shots into the water and made a quadruple-bogey 7, falling three shots behind and never catching up. Instead of making history with another wire-to-wire victory, he joined a sad list of players who threw the Masters away.

“Big picture? This one will hurt,” Spieth said.

It was a comeback that ranks among the most unlikely in the 80 years of the Masters on so many levels.

Willett wasn’t even sure he would play this year because his wife was due – on Sunday, no less – with their first child. She gave birth to Zachariah James on March 30, sending him on his amazing journey to his first major.

“We talk about fate, talk about everything else that goes with it,” Willett said. “It’s just a crazy, crazy week.”

He became the first player from England in a green jacket since Nick Faldo in 1996, and the parallels are bizarre. Faldo shot a 5-under 67 and overcame a six-shot deficit when Greg Norman collapsed around Amen Corner. Willett also closed with a 67, with no bogeys on his card, to match the best score of the weekend.

The most compelling images came from the guy who suffered.

Coming off two straight bogeys to start the back nine, Spieth still had the lead when he went at the flag with a 9-iron on the par-3 12th and saw it bounce off the slope into the water. From the drop zone, he hit a wedge so fat that he turned his head and removed his cap, not wanting to look. He got up-and-down from the back bunker, and suddenly faced a three-shot deficit.

“I actually heard everyone grunting and moaning or whatever they do to the scoreboard when the scores go up,” Willett said. “He obviously had a terrible run, which basically put it right back in anyone’s hands. And fortunately enough, I was able to seize the opportunities.”

He finished at 5-under 283 for a three-shot victory over Spieth and Lee Westwood (69).

Spieth was trying to become only the fourth back-to-back winner of the Masters, and the first player in 156 years of championship golf to go wire-to-wire in successive years in a major. And it looked inevitable when he ran off four straight birdies to end the front nine and build a five-shot lead.

This didn’t look like one of those Masters that would start on the back nine Sunday.

But it did – quickly.

Spieth made bogey from the bunker on No. 10. A tee shot into the trees on the 11th, missing an 8-foot par putt. He still had a two-shot lead and only needed to get past the dangerous par-3 12th to settle himself, especially with two par 5s in front of him. But he couldn’t. Not even close.

“It was a lack of discipline to hit it over the bunker coming off two bogeys, instead of recognizing I was still leading the Masters,” Spieth said.

The turnaround left him dazed.

Spieth was five shots ahead on the 10th tee and three shots behind when he walked to the 13th tee.

“It was a really tough 30 minutes for me that hopefully I never experience again,” Spieth said.

Willett poured it on with a shot into the 14th to about 4 feet, and a tee shot on the par-3 16th to 7 feet for a birdie that stretched his lead. Spieth still had a chance when he birdied both par 5s to get within two shots, and then hit his tee shot to 8 feet behind the hole on the 16th. But he missed the birdie putt, and when he hit into a bunker and failed to save par on the 17th, it was over.

Spieth had led after seven straight rounds at the Masters, a streak that ended in a most cruel fashion. He shot 41 on the back nine for a 73, and was runner-up for the second time in three years.

Westwood, playing with Willett, made eagle on the 15th hole to get within one shot of the lead, and then three-putted the 16th hole to fall away.

Dustin Johnson also had an outside chance, even after four putts for a double bogey on the fifth hole. He missed eagle putts from 15 feet and 20 feet on the par 5s on the back nine, and then took double bogey on the 17th. Johnson closed with a 71 and tied for fourth with Paul Casey (67) and J.B. Holmes (68).

Smylie Kaufman, one shot out of the lead in his Masters debut, closed with an 81.

Willett moves to No. 9 in the world. He returns home to England with a gift like no other for his infant son.

“People were saying, ‘Try to bring the jacket home for little man.’ I think it’s a little bit big,” Willet said. “But I’m sure in a few years’ time he’ll grow into it.”

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Only three wins separate the Golden State Warriors and NBA history.

On Thursday night, the Warriors beat the San Antonio Spurs to become only the second in league history to win 70 games in a season. If they win all three of their remaining regular season games, they’ll break the record for most wins in a season (72) held by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.

But now that Golden State has clinched the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference, head coach Steve Kerr says he’s “inclined” to rest his best players, potentially forgoing the glory in exchange for physically fresher players in the playoffs.

Kerr has said that the team — which started the season 24-0 and has lost only nine games total — isn’t pushing for the record, telling USA TODAY Sports earlier in the week, “We’d like to get it, but we’re still resting people and trying to get us set up for the playoffs.”

But after Thursday’s win, with the record inching ever closer, Kerr said he was going to speak with his players about pushing for a place in the history books.

“We are going to talk about it tomorrow,” Kerr said, according to ESPN. “We’ve been putting it off for as long as we were able to, which was until we got the 1-seed. Now that we have that, I’m inclined to give some guys some rest if they need it, but I’ve sort of made a pact with the guys that if they are not banged up and they are not tired and if they want to go for this record or whatever then — so we got to talk.”

Golden State plays the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday in Memphis, the Spurs on Sunday in San Antonio and the Grizzlies again on Wednesday in Oakland. In the teams’ first two meetings this season, the Warriors beat the Grizzlies by 50 points and 16 points, respectively, so a loss in either of those games seems unlikely. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Warriors have an 80.5 percent chance to beat the Grizzlies on Saturday and a 92.4 percent chance to beat them on Wednesday.

The Spurs, however, present a challenge. Not only are they second in the Western Conference, last month they beat the Warriors in San Antonio.

Plus, the Spurs are playing for their own record. If they beat the Warriors on Sunday, the team will be one win away from going undefeated on their home court this season. Fox Sports writes that the 1986 Boston Celtics went 40-1 in Boston; the Bulls went 39-2 in 1996 and 1997; and the Cleveland Cavaliers went 39-2 in 2009. If the Spurs can win on Sunday and beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, they would be the first team in the history of the NBA to win every home game in a season. (FiveThirtyEight gives the Warriors a 29.2 percent chance to beat the Spurs).

So, it’s record pitted against record; No. 1 versus No. 2. And one team, at least, is nonchalant about its history-making opportunity.

“We don’t talk about it or talk about the streak or the record or anything like that,” Spurs forward Kyle Anderson told Sirius XM NBA Radio on Wednesday. “We just want to be playing the type of basketball we’re playing when it comes close to playoff time. We don’t talk about it or think about it.”

The Warriors’ players are definitely thinking about it.

“I’m only 26. When I’m 36, I’ll be looking to rest more,” guard Klay Thompson told reporters after Thursday’s win.

Forward Harrison Barnes agreed, according to ESPN: “I’m 23, so I’ve got no problem playing the rest of these games, and we’ll go from there.”

Warriors’ guard and NBA superstar Stephen Curry was on board as well.

“We wanted to take care of tonight and clinch home court for the playoffs, [which] was a goal of ours,” Curry told reporters on Thursday. “With three games left and 73 still there, it’s obviously a lot to play for.”

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If you’re taking sports supplements that claim to burn fat or improve your workout, you might want to check the label.

Some of those supplements contain a stimulant drug that hasn’t been approved in the U.S., is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and may pose health risks, according to research published Thursday. The paper comes just days after the FDA sent warning letters to seven manufacturers, saying the substance shouldn’t be in their dietary supplements.

Oxilofrine, also known as methylsynephrine or p-hydroxyephedrine, can stimulate the heart and is useful in some medical situations, such as enhancing heart function in patients under anesthesia, says Pieter Cohen, a general internist with the Cambridge Health Alliance, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and an author of the study. But it’s not supposed to be in dietary supplements, which are sold over the counter and which by law are supposed to consist of “dietary ingredients.”

Cohen, who frequently conducts research on supplements, started looking into oxilofrine after several high-profile athletes tested positive for the drug. Asafa Powell, a Jamaican sprinter, blamed a supplement for a positive test that led to him withdrawing from the 2013 World Championships.

Cohen found that methylsynephrine was openly listed on some supplement labels. “It’s sold as a pre-workout supplement, to get pumped up and have better workouts,” he says. It’s also marketed for speeding fat loss.

When Cohen and his colleagues ran lab tests on 27 supplement brands with methylsynephrine on the labels, they found oxilofrine in 14 of them. Some had a small amount of the drug, but six contained pharmaceutical or higher doses. One contained more than twice the usual adult dose and three times the usual adolescent dose, the study found. The health effects of that kind of dose aren’t known, but research on lower doses suggests users might experience adverse effects including heart palpitations, arrhythmias and increased blood pressure, the study says.

The FDA, meantime, has received 47 reports of adverse events associated with oxilofrine-containing supplements, though it can’t say whether or not the supplements caused harm, says Steven Tave, acting director of the FDA’s Office of Dietary Supplement Programs. The agency doesn’t review supplements for safety and efficacy before they come to market, the way it does with drugs.

The FDA took action against manufacturers because oxilofrine doesn’t meet the definition of a dietary ingredient.

U.S. law “defines a dietary ingredient as a vitamin; mineral; herb or other botanical; amino acid; dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake; or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of the preceding substances,” the FDA said in announcing the warning letters. “Methylsynephrine does not fit under any of these categories, rendering misbranded any dietary supplements that declare methylsynephrine as a dietary ingredient.”

Cohen’s research turned up no evidence that the ingredient has been detected in a plant or botanical. (It shouldn’t be confused with synephrine, which is a constituent of bitter orange and is a legal supplement ingredient, he says.)

Since the lab tested one sample of each supplement, this should be considered a “snapshot;” the amount of the drug may vary in other batches of the same brand, says Cohen. In addition, researchers tested only for oxilofrine, and not for other stimulants that might be in the supplement.

“If it’s not something that’s in the diet, folks shouldn’t be selling it,” says Daniel Fabricant, executive director and CEO of the Natural Products Association. His group represents supplement makers, but he says the companies warned by the FDA are not members of his association. He suggests that consumers always ask themselves why they’re taking a supplement. “If you’re looking for something to act like a drug, don’t take a supplement,” he says.

The study appears in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis.

Katherine Hobson is a freelance health and science writer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. She’s on Twitter: @katherinehobson

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On Tuesday night in Indianapolis, top-seeded Connecticut made history, beating No. 4 Syracuse 82 to 51 to become the first NCAA Division I women’s team to win four consecutive NCAA basketball championships.

The win also marked the 11th national championship for UConn head coach Geno Auriemma who surpassed coach John Wooden on the all-time championship win list — for both college and pro basketball. Auriemma is now tied with coach Phil Jackson for basketball championship wins.

UConn jumped out to a 9-0 lead thanks in part to a couple of three-pointers from senior guard Moriah Jefferson and from Breanna Stewart, UConn’s towering 6-foot-4-inch senior forward who’s widely expected to be taken No. 1 in the WNBA draft.

Syracuse junior guard Brittney Sykes momentarily stemmed the tide with a smooth underhand layup to get on the scoreboard, but UConn, as they’ve done all season, upped their game.

At the end of the first quarter, UConn led 28-13. By the end of the first half, the Huskies were up 50-23. Jefferson and Stewart alone outscored Syracuse 25-23 in the first half.

Even casual basketball fans knew the UConn team was all but unstoppable (in fact some people even said its dominance was bad for women’s basketball), but the team’s seamless passes, impenetrable defense and superb shooting left some viewers in awe.

At the half, Sykes told ESPN’s Holly Rowe that Syracuse was focused on every possession; they were going to play in four-minute segments so as to chip away at UConn’s lead. That they did, stringing together an impressive 16-0 run in the third quarter, forcing Auriemma to call a defensive timeout. But the Orange still trailed by 17, and couldn’t loosen the Huskies’ grip on the lead.

UConn stepped on the gas, blotting out Syracuse’s glimmer of hope.

With just under two minutes left to play and the score at 80-51, Auriemma called a timeout to sub out Stewart, Jefferson and fellow Huskies senior Morgan Tuck, the three of whom made up the core of the team. UConn’s other senior, Briana Pulido, came on in the final minutes. To the delight of her teammates and the fans, she drained a shot in the game’s waning seconds, and the primarily pro-UConn arena erupted in cheers.

“It was perfect,” Stewart said after the game. “To play with these guys is unbelievable.”

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The Villanova Wildcats’ vaunted defense locked down the North Carolina Tar Heels in the second half, and the school won its second national championship Monday night, 77-74. But not before an exchange of three-pointers in the closing seconds.

North Carolina’s Marcus Paige hit a seemingly impossible double-pump three pointer with just five seconds to go to tie the game, but Villanova’s Kris Jenkins answered at the buzzer.

Villanova used a 19-5 run over nearly 10 minutes to take control of the game in the second half as the Tar Heels shot 3-14 and committed five turnovers. The Wildcats built a 10-point lead with less than six minutes to go, but seven straight points brought UNC back in striking range and set up the tense end of the game.

Villanova was led in scoring by two guards, sophomore Phil Booth with 20 and senior Ryan Arcidiacono — who was named the tournament’s most outstanding player — with 16.

Arcidiacono made the pass that led to the winning points, the Associated Press reported:

“Every kid dreams about that shot,” said Arcidiacono, who finished with 16 points and two assists, one more memorable than the other. “I wanted that shot, but I just had confidence in my teammates, and Kris was able to knock down that shot.”

The Tar Heels finished the first half with a 39-34 lead thanks to 7-9 shooting from three-point range and 15 points from sophomore Joel Berry II. But Berry had just 5 points in the second half as the Tar Heels were flustered by Villanova’s defense. Senior Marcus Paige led UNC with 21 points.

As in their semifinal win over Oklahoma, when six players had 10 or more points, Villanova used balanced scoring to stay in striking distance in the first half.

Villanova, making its first NCAA championship game appearance since its surprise title as an eight-seed in 1985, were dominant in their path toward the title game, winning by an average of 24 points. That included a victory over No. 1 overall seed Kansas to reach the Final Four, and a 95-51 domination of Oklahoma in the national semifinal.

North Carolina was making its 10th NCAA title game appearance, while the Tar Heels’ coach, Roy Williams, was making his fifth appearance after going 2-2 across 28 seasons at North Carolina and Kansas.

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