The Warriors are, in fact, light years ahead of the Clippers

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

MORE LIKE THE LASHINGTON LIZARDS: This week’s Reality Index tackles the problem with the Wizards: their bench is awful! Plus I assess the chances the Grizzlies keep this up and whether Rajon Rondo’s career is over.

WELL THAT’S DEMORALIZING: The Warriors blew out the Clippers ... without even shooting well. After the game, Mo Speights, who is a Clipper, destroyed the Clippers. During the game, the Warriors’ passing ability destroyed the Clippers’ rotations. But hey! Jamal Crawford did the Steph Curry I Know It’s Going In So I Don’t Even Have To Watch thing. The Warriors are now 19-3.

HOW BAD DID THE CAVS BLOW OUT THE KNICKS? LeBron and Kyrie spent the fourth quarter doing the Water Bottle Challenge on the bench. Before all that came this pinpoint 80-foot pass from Kevin Love to LeBron. Good lord.

THE KARL MALONE SPECIAL: Giannis Antetokounmpo finally got hit with a 10-second violation on his drawwwwwwwn-out free throw routine.

SCORES GALORE ...

Pistons 77, Hornets 87
Celtics 117, Magic 87
Nuggets 111, Nets 116
Heat 95, Hawks 103
Blazers 107, Bucks 115
Lakers 95, Rockets 134
Cavaliers 126, Knicks 94
Kings 120, Mavericks 89
Pacers 109, Suns 94
Warriors 115, Clippers 98

INTERESTING: Sean Deveney on how the league is trying to recast referees as ... humans, capable of interaction with players and coaches that isn’t completely adversarial.

OH: Apparently Donatas Motiejunas’ problem with the Rockets is that when Houston matched Brooklyn’s offer, they did not have to match incentive clauses, per NBA rules. So they didn’t. Motiejunas’ camp doesn’t like that. This is starting to make a little more sense, though I still think Motiejunas should report before his career suffers irreparable harm.

HOW DURANT BECAME HIS MOST EFFICIENT SELF, BY MARC STEIN.

AWW: Dan Woike on the Durant-DeAndre Jordan friendship, which included a trip to getting tattoos of musicians. Durant went Tupac, DeAndre went Marvin.

LEWIS ON MOREY, AGAIN: Daryl Morey became a household name off a Michael Lewis profile of Shane Battier in the New York Times Magazine ages ago. Now Lewis has a book on decision-making out, and Slate ran an excerpt on Morey.

HMM: Interesting Mike Vaccaro column on Phil Jackson criticizing Carmelo Anthony.

WE NEED THIS FOR DION WAITERS: Friend of GMIB Dan Shanoff with a smart, short piece on leveraging kids’ desire to shoot threes into getting more hustle plays out of them.

RISE UP: Jonathan Givony with five prospects who have raised their draft stock early in the college season.

WHY MIKE D’ANTONI HAS BEEN A GREAT FIT FOR THE ROCKETS.

NEXT UP: We have a surprisingly busy Thursday night anchored by your TNT doubleheader: Wolves-Raptors at 7 p.m. ET and Spurs-Bulls at 9:30. League Pass options include Blazers-Grizzlies at 8 and Warriors-Jazz at 9.

Prada will take you home this week. Be excellent to each other.