While the Warriors brought almost everybody back from last year's 67-win championship team with a historic point differential of +10.1, there were some doubts about whether Golden State could replicate the same kind of dominance again this season. Through four games, the Warriors have quickly put those doubts to rest.
The Warriors won the NBA title. Somehow, they look even better now
Steph Curry and the Warriors are blitzing the NBA once again. Could they somehow be even more dominant than last year?
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Somehow, Golden State looks even better than last year.
The Warriors took a hammer to the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night, beating them by a whopping 50 points despite trailing by one after the first quarter. The Warriors then proceeded to outscore the Grizzlies 72-27 over the next two quarters. In the second and third quarters, Golden State shot nearly 61 percent from the field and held Memphis to under 19 percent shooting.
Stephen Curry scored 30 points and notched his third 20-plus-point quarter of the season, putting on his typical dazzling show featuring circus layups, highlight-reel passes and a barrage of threes:
With the 50-point shellacking, the Warriors currently boast an average point differential of +25, which is a record after four games. They have an offensive rating over 115, which is the best mark in the league, per NBA.com. Their sub-89 defensive rating is second-best in the league, behind only the Utah Jazz. Golden State's net rating is nearly double the next closest team (again, the Jazz), and no Warriors player has a net rating lower than Leandro Barbosa's +11.2.
And it’s not like Golden State has been beating up on the scrubs of the league. The four wins have come against the three teams the Warriors beat to reach the NBA Finals last season in the Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans and Houston Rockets.
Sure, the Grizzlies, Pelicans and Rockets haven't looked all that great thus far. Memphis also lost by 30 to the Cleveland Cavaliers. New Orleans is an injured mess. Houston lost its first three games by 20 each before finally rebounding and beating the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday. Still, it's not easy to humiliate teams on a nightly basis, and the Warriors have succeeded in doing that in the early going.
Curry’s numbers are even more ridiculous:
The Curry count this season: 148 points in 127 minutes on 84 shots
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) November 3, 2015 Stephen Curry could go 0-for-88 from downtown in his next game and still have a higher 3FG% than James Harden.
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) November 3, 2015 It all has Curry off to the most prolific scoring barrage to start a season since Michael Jordan's 1991-92 campaign. And it must be noted, however, that Jordan got to those 156 points in 156 minutes on 95 shots.
Curry is shooting nearly 60 percent overall, 49 percent from three and is over 96 percent from the free throw line, which is good for a true shooting percentage of nearly 77 percent. He has a PER over FIFTY and has already generated 1.7 Win Shares, per Basketball-Reference.com. That puts him on pace to more than double the Win Shares he had last year in his MVP campaign.
Curry’s numbers are like when you play NBA 2K on the Rookie difficulty setting. This obviously isn’t going to sustain on this level, but the point guard is playing the best basketball of his career and is making an argument that he’s the best player in the world.
With Golden State looking so dominant, it's natural for the mind to wonder to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls that won 72 games. Could this Warriors team challenge that mark? It's far too early to say that, as you never know what can happen on the injury front. But if they stay healthy, it's not hard to envision them eclipsing the 67-win mark from last year and possibly getting to 70 wins or more. They look that good.
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