Why Golden State is statistically the team to beat

All seasons long, the Golden State Warriors have been the butt of countless jokes since their historical playoff collapse after an equally historic season. Then they decided to go on a 14-game winning streak without their new star Kevin Durant, the longest winning streak in the NBA this season. 

No one is laughing now.

With Durant back in the lineup just in time for the playoffs, everyone should forget the past and take serious notice. It is easy to discount Golden State after blowing a 3-1 lead in the finals and a 73-win season. But like always, the numbers don’t lie. 

4 ­– Golden State boasts a borderline unfair lineup of 4 All-Stars, who aren’t just any run-of-the-mill, last minute roster inclusions.

Stephen Curry is a two-time Most Valuable Player and the only unanimously voted MVP in history. He is also the only player to ever hit more than 400 three-pointers in a single season. 

Durant is also a former MVP and 3-time scoring champion who has meshed in perfectly in his first season with the team. Trading in a small fraction of his offensive firepower for defense, he has produced career-high averages in steals and blocks per game.

Klay Thompson is a former Three-Point Shooting Contest champion who is most famous for absurd scoring explosions, such as nailing 37 points in one quarter in one game and scoring 62 in 29 minutes in another. As a testament to his catch-and-shoot prowess, he only took 11 dribbles in his 62-point outing. 

Lastly, there is Draymond Green holding down the defensive end and taking over playmaking duties. The scrappy and controversial forward is now a frontrunner to win the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year award with 1.4 blocks per game and an NBA-leading 2.01 steals per game. He is also the first player in league history to record a triple-double without double-digit points (4 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals).

As a side note, Andre Iguodala, the 2015 Finals MVP, is just their role player.

11.6 ­– The Warriors don’t just win. They win big. Although they lost 6 more games this season, which still puts them at a league-leading 67-15 record, they won by an average scoring margin of 11.6 points, 2.1 better than their historic ’15-’16 campaign. Blowout victories have become trademarks of the Warrior culture. 

In comparison, runner-ups San Antonio and Houston have an average victory margin of 7.2 and 5.8 points, respectively.

The champion Cleveland Cavaliers? 3.2.

1 – Aside from leading the league in average scoring margin, the Warriors are also number one in points, assists, steals and blocks per game.

They are also first in offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency, assist-to-turnover ratio (how well they recover turnovers with assists), fastbreak points per game, field goal percentage, opponent field goal percentage (how bad teams shoot against them), and many other categories. What all of this means is that basically, the Warriors are too good at both ends of the floor.

Unless another tragedy of historic proportions befalls the former champions, they are already poised to make a very deep run in this year’s playoffs. They begin their campaign in Game 1 against the Portland Trail Blazers at 3:30 am on Monday, April 17, Manila time.

The numbers are clear. The roster is ready. Only time will tell if the jokes will come back to haunt them again. – Rappler.com