It’s time to get serious about the Golden State Warriors and their pursuit of 73 wins. Even before the advent of the 24-hour news cycle required media members to have an ironclad opinion 10 minutes after something happened, I have always been a more patient sort. Yes, a record 24 straight wins to start the season got my attention. But that is less than one-third of an NBA campaign. Over the course of 5 1/2 months and 82 games, teams slump. Teams
Age has finally caught up to Dwyane Wade, to an extent. The longtime Miami Heat superstar is putting up career lows in field goal percentage, effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage, while his scoring average and PER are at their lowest rates since his rookie season 12 years ago. However, that doesn’t mean Wade is still not a really good player— just one slowly in decline, now 10 days after his 34th birthday. That’s natural for someone who’s played over 35,000
The good news for the San Antonio Spurs is that Tim Duncan, who had soreness in his right knee, was unable to play Monday night when the second-best team in the NBA lost to the best team by 30 points. The bad news is that to compete with the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs would have needed the 25-year-old Tim Duncan who averaged 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and won the 2002 Most Valuable Player award. The 39-year-old Duncan, who
OAKLAND — The Spurs-Warriors showdown had been hyped as the most anticipated regular-season NBA game in decades, possibly ever, but it was remarkable only for its lack of drama. Stephen Curry and his supporting cast overwhelmed the Spurs every which way, 120-90, and the numbers didn’t lie. The Champs never trailed. The score was tied tied for all of 51 seconds. But, ‘c’mon, it was an NBA regular-season game in the dead of January. What did it mean, really? It means Gregg Popovich
Sometimes you want to kick the TV. Sometimes you want to hug it. The latter happened last night during the long-awaited first meeting of the season between the Warriors and the Spurs, and the former happened this morning when ESPN was debating whether Golden State’s lack of competitive games was hurting the NBA. After all, we wait weeks and weeks for Cavs-Warriors and Spurs-Warriors and what do we get? A bunch of 30-point blowouts. But why is that considered bad? When you have
The Golden State Warriors have been historically good this season with the best record in the league, but there were still questions about whether they are better than the San Antonio Spurs, who trailed them by just two games in the standings. Naturally and reasonably so, all the hype was there for an epic showdown between the Warriors and Spurs, who saw each other for the first time on Monday. With the Warriors being the best offensive team in the league and the Spurs
The Golden State Warriors have the best record in the league at 40-4 and are on pace to match the single greatest regular season record of all-time – 72-10 – set by the Chicago Bulls back in the 1995-1996 season. As impressive as that sounds, they are somehow only up by two games in the standings thanks to the greatness of the San Antonio Spurs, who own the second best record in the league at 38-6. [Read more…]
Kawhi Leonard is 18% more efficient this season than last season. He ranks 5th in overall efficiency, behind Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and LeBron James. He’s the only player in the top-5 in both offensive (5th) and defensive win shares (1st). Leonard’s overall win shares are second in the NBA to Curry. [Read more…]