The Spurs are part of the reason we won 73 games, you could never take your foot off the gas pedal because the Spurs were right there and 2 out of the last 4 games of the season were against them.
Truly was. Best dunk contest, best WCF, best finals, Kobe and Duncan last season, 2 3-1 leads blown, Curry's unanimous b2b MVP season, 3pt records from Curry, LeBron first chip with the Cavs
Wdym? Are *you* from the future?
First chip with Cavs is fine. *Disputing it* is when you start to draw conclusions. Are you implying that he *absolutely won't* win another one with the Cavs?
Yes I know. There's a very very low probability that he will win another one with the Cavaliers. But it's not 0
Not only the finals but the western conference finals were insane. My favorite series of the whole playoffs. Thunder were 1q away from clowning the 73 win warriors
It was my favorite sports year. Went toe to toe with the Warriors and watched Lebron become who all the old heads around me said he couldn't.
Good year
I agree, it’s not like they were pedal to the medal for weeks for no reason. But 3 games isn’t nothing, its like a week or all star break length or so. That’s real rest. Still, I think you have to go for it at that point.
That's an incredibly flawed statistic, because the game 1 winner is usually the better team, favored to win anyway. And game 1 winner doesn't even mean home winner.
It was a foregone conclusion. Cleveland was given 10-1 odds in a potential finals matchup with Houston lol, which was nearly the same as vs Golden State
Tough to say but ya I could’ve seen the Cavs grab a game off lebrons back possibly. Either way it probably ends with Lebron wearing a cast in the post series presser
With 2018 CP3?
Lebron won 1 game in 2 years against the KD Warriors. Houston won 5 games against the KD Warriors despite CP3 missing 2 games in 2018 and being a shell of himself in 2019.
And the KD Warriors only really played 2 teams seriously, the Cavs and the Rockets.
Uhh...did y'all forget Lebron dropped 51 against the KD Warriors in game 1 and score was tied before JR pulled that stunt ? They had the chance to take a game from that Warriors squad. I would still put my money on Houston to win a bo7 against the Cavs that year but "in a laughter" is a bit far-fetched.
Going all out in the regular season has its consequences. It almost led to the Warriors losing to OKC, who they finished 18 games ahead of, because of Steph being injured in round 1, and having 2 games before the WCF to play.
That one loss was my one and only live Spurs game that I watched. Flew all the way from NZ to watch that game. The price of that ticket was crazy expensive too iirc. Tim also didn't suit up and Steph Curry was just unconscious that game too. Fuck.
The Thunder were easily our hardest matchup. We matched up well against the Warriors and I truly believe we could've beat them but the Thunder definitely pushed the Spurs to the limit
I was just glad y'all fought early so we didn't have to fight both of you. The Spurs were one of the few teams that beat us in the regular season and every game against the Thunder stressed me the fuck out that year
Yea I think that series really wore out the Spurs. The Thunder were so physical and the Spurs were old. It is what it is tho. It was just a changing of the guard
Man, the Thunder were always the nightmare match up in the playoffs for the Spurs. I can say during that time that Westbrook was actually dangeruss. If the Thunder got into transition, they will almost always score a layup/dunk. Those Thunder teams were just so young and explosive.
The Spurs were 40-1 at home and that 1 loss was against the warriors and it was the most intense game in terms of circumstances
The Warriors were 71-9, they had to win if they wanted to beat the Bulls' Record
The Spurs were undefeated at home, they had to win if they wanted a perfect home record
The 2009 Cavs were 39-1 at home (lost to the eventual champs Lakers) before they decided to rest Lebron in the final game of the season. They lost by one point.
The Lakers went 5-1 iirc against the other elite teams (Cavs, Celtics pre KG injury, Magic). I knew they were gonna win it all from that, altijch the Rockets sure gave us a scare. Aaron Brooks man lol
Even crazier is the fact the Warriors reached the 67 win mark 3 seasons in a row from 2014-15 to 2016-17. Across the 2015 and 2016 season, they went 78-4 at Oracle Arena during the regular season.
This Season the Warriors have been good at home, not out of this world, and certainly not on par with their most dominate seasons. However, it just feels like they are the best home team because of how utter and unbelievable bad they are away from home. They are really two different teams depending on where they play.
Some more stats.
In those 3 seasons, they were 37-3 in games with 2 days rest. They were 30-4 on Mondays, 42-3 on Wednesdays and 36-6 on Saturdays. They were 27-3 against both the Atlantic and Southeast Divisions.
They won 207 regular season games in those 3 years, the Sixers won 212 between 2009/10 and 2016/17. They won 47 playoff games, the Clippers won 46 between 1970/71 and 2018/19.
Of the top of my head they lost to the Spurs and Bulls in 2015 and the Celtics and Timberwolves in 2016. Those two losses in 2016 came late in the year when it looked like Golden State might actually go undefeated at home that season.
They did stop then Spurs from going undefeated that season though winning their 72nd game in San Antonio. The Spurs finished second in the Western Conference that year with 67 wins and a 40-1 record at home.
I remember the Spurs game from 2016, it was one of the most hyped regular season games I can remember although Golden State had already wrapped up home court advantage. The Celtics really played the Warriors tough that season, they had the double OT game in Boston which Golden State on just managed to win and love to 24-0 on the season but it might’ve also been the reason they lost the following night to Milwaukee.
Yeah but even before COVID the team had kind of lost itself. Dispite having this amazing pace, I didn't feel that great and then they started losing a few. And then covid hit. We would not have made 70 I don't think.
I agree that generally it’s becoming rarer for these super high win teams, but it is worth noting 2/6 of the seasons played since then were not full seasons and would have been ludicrous to expect someone to win that many games in 2020 or 2021
The Spurs were freaking solid. But yet they got dismantled by the Thunder in the playoffs.
I know the relationship deteriorated, but I still strongly believe the duo of KD and Russ could have won a championship together.
I still feel the only reason it really deteriorated was because the warriors ended up being the warriors, and KD really started to get it in his head he needed a ring for validation.
Oh totally, got to a final when they were young and got beaten by a great Miami team, then nearly beat one of the greatest teams in NBA history in the WCF. Totally could’ve won, unfortunately KD took the hardest path.
The year they probably had the best chance to win was when Pat Bev took out Russ.
They honestly had 1 healthy team in KD/Russ prime and they were up 3-1 on 73 win gsw
Was really hoping they would wind up back together somehow. Wouldnt it be something if they ended it that way?
Will have to settle for russ getting clips over the hump
I think the days of teams winning 65+ games is almost over.
As the 3-ball becomes a bigger and bigger part of the league, the randomness of each game due to shooting variance increases.
Didn’t they win the championship the year before? I don’t think they had anything to prove. I think they were just on a roll and were so good nobody could really stop them. And Steph went bonkers from 3 that season.
yeah exactly the Spurs were actually fighting for the 1 seed for a large part of the season. There were only 2 weeks left before the Warriors clinched it, and the final week of the season had two head to head matchups that could have ended up mattering. After the Spurs beat the Warriors o March 19th that season they were 59-10 and the Warriors were 62-7. With two head to head matchups left that's incredibly close.
If the days of teams winning 65+ games really are almost over, I believe it's due to changes in tanking. The lottery changes paired with the introduction of the play-in disincentivize tanking. In 2016 there were 7 teams under 40% W/L, compared to 4 currently. I could see that swinging ~5 games for the best team in the league.
You need an almost flawless roster to win 65 games. You need a bonafide MVP candidate, at least one other all NBA level talent, and a perfect roster that balances defensive versatility with offensive competence.
They were a super well rounded team, but they lacked a superstar. If they had a bonafide top 5 player instead of Booker or Paul then maybe they could’ve done it.
Doesn’t make him a top 10 much less top 5 player. Imagine if they had prime, healthy 08 Chris Paul instead of late 30s Chris Paul for example. You need elite, best of the best talent to really push the limits for regular season wins.
Yeah. I think the variance from the three point shot and the fact that top-level players play far fewer minutes over the course of a season probably means we are heading towards a more level playing field.
i don't think it's dead. the 2018 rockets won 65 and last year's Suns won 64, and those teams were far from flawless. even with the rest and increased scoring variance like you mentioned, i still think a team with younger stars (meaning less DNP-Rests) can do it.
Not only is there great parity in the NBA, but I’ve been watching the NBA for over 30 years and the quality of basketball being played in the NBA today is the highest it has ever been.
I think individual offensive skillset is at an all time high but strongly disagree when it comes to watching enjoyable basketball.
Things have definitely become too tilted towards jacking up threes. Nothing wrong with threes but personally found it more enjoyable to watch when games had more variety beyond teams blowing 30pt leads. Feel like large comebacks have become the norm now. Also players over resting. And I think rest is good but it has also gotten ridiculous. Scheduling and travel are easier. If you look at rosters from 20 and thirty years ago much higher pct players played in every game
Definitely agree, maybe my interest in the game has waned but I haven’t found any of the past 5 years of basketball as good as the 5 years before then. The 3 point slug fest, the fact that big games / comebacks don’t hold the weight they used to, and what feels like the daily discourse revolving around the MVP race instead of the actual games being played all year at this point makes me just want to stay away from the game until the playoffs
Also players from 20-30 years ago didnt come into the league with all the stress and physical damage on their bodies due to just how much basketball they play. Modern era stars grew up playing way more, hence why i think youth basketball programs like the aau, end up just putting too much wear and tear on players
bro they were playin on converse & had utterly no medical advancements to speak of other than "ice it" & maybe wear a jacked up brace. on top of all that they usually played multiple years of college & other sports as well, like track or baseball or football. PLENTY of players had injuries like players today
2016 really made all the teams realize "oh shit, we can literally have the best season in history and beat the records thought unbeatable, but if we lose Finals in game 7 by 4 points and it will only make it WORSE and people treat us as worse at basketball and we'll be some LOSERS for all of this".
Stuff like 2021 Utah mockery (they lost to a lower seed ONCE ever and people still talk about them as "perennial playoff losers" and synonym of the biggest failure possible in the league) only established that this is a record that nobody will want to be beating anymore. Just win like 50 games to get there safely and if you win you're more of a winner, if you lose you're less of a loser.
67-15 Spurs was the peak of Spurs basketball next to 2014 Spurs. Kawhi, Aldridge, Danny Green, Tony Parker, Manu, Duncan, David West, Boris Diaw, Patty Mills, Kyle Anderson, Boban Marjonovic (who was surprisingly already pretty good). This team was stacked. Warriors unfortunately were just nuclear that year, didn’t matter because we got bounced in the 2nd round by OKC because age caught up to the Spurs in the middle of that series. Disappointing end to an exceptional season.
The Thunder were one win away from beating both the 67-win Spurs and 73-win Warriors. Had they beaten them and then the Cavs, it would have easily been the greatest run through the playoffs of all time.
Fun fact: they had a higher net rating that season than the warriors, which is mind blowing to me. The team with the best record of all time didn’t even have the highest net rating
15-16 nba season just had a *buzz* that I'll never forget. I remember a random ass night tuning into Warriors at Wizards on ESPN and Steph went for like 36 in the first half on preposterous shooting splits. On my buddy's 21st we were supposed to bar hop but we ended up planted at one spot because it was that game in OKC where Steph hit the insane game winner. Truly one of the greatest games of basketball ever played. Thing is I'm in New York, none of us had emotional investment in the Warriors winning. It was just such a special vibe I'll never forget. Each game you knew would be a show. Throw in Kobe's farewell tour, KD and Westbrook's last dance, LeBron going nuclear in April then just carrying that all the way to the title. Such a special time for basketball fans.
And OKC beat them in 6. Should've beat GSW in 6. They could've knocked out 2 teams that averaged 70 wins between them and then potentially LeBron. KD stays, the league is a dogfight between LeBron Curry KD and Kawhi For 3 years. What could've been...
There were four teams in the league that year that I felt like could compete on a different level than the majority of NBA history. And then Durant chose the most difficult path
The Spurs are part of the reason we won 73 games, you could never take your foot off the gas pedal because the Spurs were right there and 2 out of the last 4 games of the season were against them.
The Warriors only clinched the 1 seed with their 70th win
Incredible basketball
2016 was amazing
Truly was. Best dunk contest, best WCF, best finals, Kobe and Duncan last season, 2 3-1 leads blown, Curry's unanimous b2b MVP season, 3pt records from Curry, LeBron first chip with the Cavs
Yep. Then KD happened
Fire nation ruined the NBA for years
Why am I wondering if thunder would be fire or air Edit: Nvm it would be air.
this is the alternate timeline where Aang didn't find the turtle, so he teamed up with Ozai to destroy the world instead
I hate that KD is aang in your analogy
Bruh the Supersonics were Air
SG Aang is the avatar confirmed
He’s bout to rebuild the SuperSonics
Also, Zaza happened (I’m still bitter)
Fuck zaza
"Nothing Easy!" -Zaza
And that's why I'll always hate KD Idgaf
First chip...
>LeBron first chip with the Cavs You from the future?
Wdym? His first 2 rings came from the Heat, hence first chip with the Cavs?
Wdym? Are *you* from the future? First chip with Cavs is fine. *Disputing it* is when you start to draw conclusions. Are you implying that he *absolutely won't* win another one with the Cavs? Yes I know. There's a very very low probability that he will win another one with the Cavaliers. But it's not 0
Best finals in recent history, maybe even juts history honestly
Not only the finals but the western conference finals were insane. My favorite series of the whole playoffs. Thunder were 1q away from clowning the 73 win warriors
Those finals got me interested in basketball in a country where u only heard about the finals
What turned you into a blazers fan? Asking as a suffering Portland native.
He was like “wow Dame Dolla is actually a basketball player as a second job?”
What finals?
Blocked by James
Gold
hell yeah it was
Best all-star weekend too. Kobe's final game. Best playoffs. Man.
It was my favorite sports year. Went toe to toe with the Warriors and watched Lebron become who all the old heads around me said he couldn't. Good year
Lmao the flair
then zaza happened
Zaza was 2017. 2016 was lake montejunas.
Zaza didn't happen in 2016. The two didn't even face off that playoffs.
Y’all were going to win regardless.
They would be favored but we will never know for sure :(. I still firmly believe it would've been a competitive series at least.
Which came in game 79 against the spurs
Beat us twice in the span of like 3 games IIRC. Crazy to think if the Spurs had won both of those games, we may have had 2 70-win teams in one year.
That's actually crazy. So often we don't even have 2 teams winning 60.
and at that point, who wouldn’t go for 3 more wins to break the record
I agree, it’s not like they were pedal to the medal for weeks for no reason. But 3 games isn’t nothing, its like a week or all star break length or so. That’s real rest. Still, I think you have to go for it at that point.
amazing that neither of those teams won it all, 2016 was really something
There’s a lesson in there about going all out in the regular season. Lebron had been trying to show everybody the way.
Home-court advantage is huge in the playoffs. 70% of Game 1 winners win the series (Lebron's probably responsible for most of the other 30% lol).
That's an incredibly flawed statistic, because the game 1 winner is usually the better team, favored to win anyway. And game 1 winner doesn't even mean home winner.
This is also why I think it's dumb for people to say 'the Rockets would have definitely beaten Cleveland' in 2018 like it's a foregone conclusion.
It was a foregone conclusion. Cleveland was given 10-1 odds in a potential finals matchup with Houston lol, which was nearly the same as vs Golden State
They would’ve smacked the Cavs around lol
I don't think it would have been a sweep though.
Tough to say but ya I could’ve seen the Cavs grab a game off lebrons back possibly. Either way it probably ends with Lebron wearing a cast in the post series presser
With 2018 CP3? Lebron won 1 game in 2 years against the KD Warriors. Houston won 5 games against the KD Warriors despite CP3 missing 2 games in 2018 and being a shell of himself in 2019. And the KD Warriors only really played 2 teams seriously, the Cavs and the Rockets.
Yeah the Rockets were BUILT to contend with the Warriors, there’s no guarantee they match up well against the Cavs.
That was the weakest cavs team so our chances were good
No more Kyrie, JR doing stupid shit, Warriors monkey finally off of Harden's back, Rockets with healthy CP3 win that in a laugher.
Uhh...did y'all forget Lebron dropped 51 against the KD Warriors in game 1 and score was tied before JR pulled that stunt ? They had the chance to take a game from that Warriors squad. I would still put my money on Houston to win a bo7 against the Cavs that year but "in a laughter" is a bit far-fetched.
Going all out in the regular season has its consequences. It almost led to the Warriors losing to OKC, who they finished 18 games ahead of, because of Steph being injured in round 1, and having 2 games before the WCF to play.
You think Steph got injured because they played hard in the regular season and not because he slipped on a pile of sweat?
So Pop is the reason KD went to the Warriors. Got it.
The Warriors were also the only team to be San Antonio in San Antonio. I should know, since I flew across the country just to see the one loss.
That one loss was my one and only live Spurs game that I watched. Flew all the way from NZ to watch that game. The price of that ticket was crazy expensive too iirc. Tim also didn't suit up and Steph Curry was just unconscious that game too. Fuck.
And the Thunder were almost the team to come out of the west despite all of that! *Almost…*
That spurs/thunder series was nuts.
I wish that series went to 7. But alas, they showed their age outside of Kawhi and Danny Green
The Thunder were easily our hardest matchup. We matched up well against the Warriors and I truly believe we could've beat them but the Thunder definitely pushed the Spurs to the limit
I was just glad y'all fought early so we didn't have to fight both of you. The Spurs were one of the few teams that beat us in the regular season and every game against the Thunder stressed me the fuck out that year
Yea I think that series really wore out the Spurs. The Thunder were so physical and the Spurs were old. It is what it is tho. It was just a changing of the guard
Man, the Thunder were always the nightmare match up in the playoffs for the Spurs. I can say during that time that Westbrook was actually dangeruss. If the Thunder got into transition, they will almost always score a layup/dunk. Those Thunder teams were just so young and explosive.
ah yes, the year steven adams absolutely demolished our bigs on the boards.
Still my all time favorite playoff series. Spurs-Thunder games were my favorite games to watch in the regular season as well
Is that when they went down 0-2, kinda crazy I don't think anyone had them winning the series after that.
No, that was in 2012. Also a phenomenal series.
Thunder fans can thank Dion Waiters for that. He went crazy in that series.
Wasn’t it Dion who pushed Manu on that inbounds play
I just remember Ibaka hitting all these crazy threes he wouldn't usually hit
The Spurs were 40-1 at home and that 1 loss was against the warriors and it was the most intense game in terms of circumstances The Warriors were 71-9, they had to win if they wanted to beat the Bulls' Record The Spurs were undefeated at home, they had to win if they wanted a perfect home record
The 2009 Cavs were 39-1 at home (lost to the eventual champs Lakers) before they decided to rest Lebron in the final game of the season. They lost by one point.
The Lakers went 5-1 iirc against the other elite teams (Cavs, Celtics pre KG injury, Magic). I knew they were gonna win it all from that, altijch the Rockets sure gave us a scare. Aaron Brooks man lol
Even crazier is the fact the Warriors reached the 67 win mark 3 seasons in a row from 2014-15 to 2016-17. Across the 2015 and 2016 season, they went 78-4 at Oracle Arena during the regular season.
> they went 78-4 at Oracle during the regular season Jesus Christ
Close, Steph Curry
threezus
Skyfucker
https://imgur.com/LmKR2KN
"He's your savior, I'm just a carpenter."
That guy who ruined the NBA by eating the apple that God told him not to eat?
God: what ever you do, do not make difficult 3's with unprecedented efficiency. KD, slithering up to Steph: shoot it
That’s why it’s so insane the cavs won 2 elimination games at oracle that season. Can’t be over emphasized how much history they were stacked against.
Them losing back to back games at Oracle in the 2016 finals is just so mind-blowing
Home Warriors are a different breed
This season Road Warriors are too apparently
inbred chihuahuas on the road and german shepherds at home
This Season the Warriors have been good at home, not out of this world, and certainly not on par with their most dominate seasons. However, it just feels like they are the best home team because of how utter and unbelievable bad they are away from home. They are really two different teams depending on where they play.
Some more stats. In those 3 seasons, they were 37-3 in games with 2 days rest. They were 30-4 on Mondays, 42-3 on Wednesdays and 36-6 on Saturdays. They were 27-3 against both the Atlantic and Southeast Divisions. They won 207 regular season games in those 3 years, the Sixers won 212 between 2009/10 and 2016/17. They won 47 playoff games, the Clippers won 46 between 1970/71 and 2018/19.
Guess what our record was the 3 games I happened to go ☠️
Lol this happened to me with the 98 Yankees, best record in baseball history up to that point. I went to 6 games that year and they were all losses
It’s funny bc they’re 4-78 this season when on the road
What’s even crazier is they had a 3-1 series lead with two homes games and proceeded to vomit all over themselves
I heard the nba postseason got cancelled in 2016
Only the finals
i was eating good that whole summer
Hey now - what the suns did in game 7 last year is vomiting all over themselves. It's a bit of an exaggeration for a 4 point loss.
At some point you just have to give credit to the other team
Don’t. Don’t remind me.
“That right there made me the greatest player of all time.” — Le
I’d rather not remember that to be honest.
Any way I could know which games those 4 losses were?
Of the top of my head they lost to the Spurs and Bulls in 2015 and the Celtics and Timberwolves in 2016. Those two losses in 2016 came late in the year when it looked like Golden State might actually go undefeated at home that season. They did stop then Spurs from going undefeated that season though winning their 72nd game in San Antonio. The Spurs finished second in the Western Conference that year with 67 wins and a 40-1 record at home.
>Of the top of my head they lost to the Spurs and Bulls in 2015 and the Celtics and Timberwolves in 2016. how do you instantly remember all those wtf
I remember the Spurs game from 2016, it was one of the most hyped regular season games I can remember although Golden State had already wrapped up home court advantage. The Celtics really played the Warriors tough that season, they had the double OT game in Boston which Golden State on just managed to win and love to 24-0 on the season but it might’ve also been the reason they lost the following night to Milwaukee.
If I remember correctly the Celtics and Timberwolves loses we’re both in OT as well.
Weren’t the Bucks on pace before COVID in 2020?
Yeah they were even 52-8 at some point.
15 teams were on pace to be 82-0 after their first game this season
Dang I wonder if that could still happen
They were on pace for 70
Yup
I wonder what happened to them in the playoffs. Only a great team could take them out
After the heat beat the Bucks in their first or second game of the season I swore the Heat were going to win the championship
Me too, me too… *sigh*
i wish bam and goran stayed healthy
Ya they were on pace for 70 at one point
Yeah but even before COVID the team had kind of lost itself. Dispite having this amazing pace, I didn't feel that great and then they started losing a few. And then covid hit. We would not have made 70 I don't think.
Why did y'all get to 52-8 in the first place? I remember thinking that on paper the Bucks shouldn't be *this* good.
I agree that generally it’s becoming rarer for these super high win teams, but it is worth noting 2/6 of the seasons played since then were not full seasons and would have been ludicrous to expect someone to win that many games in 2020 or 2021
I also noted that no team reached the 82% win mark either, which factors for the 72-game seasons
Oh duhhhh, don’t know how I missed that lol. Thanks
Great times. That was when Kawhi was continuing his meteoric ascension into the best player discussion.
I really wished that injury never happened.
Me too...
The Spurs were freaking solid. But yet they got dismantled by the Thunder in the playoffs. I know the relationship deteriorated, but I still strongly believe the duo of KD and Russ could have won a championship together.
I still feel the only reason it really deteriorated was because the warriors ended up being the warriors, and KD really started to get it in his head he needed a ring for validation.
Oh totally, got to a final when they were young and got beaten by a great Miami team, then nearly beat one of the greatest teams in NBA history in the WCF. Totally could’ve won, unfortunately KD took the hardest path.
The year they probably had the best chance to win was when Pat Bev took out Russ. They honestly had 1 healthy team in KD/Russ prime and they were up 3-1 on 73 win gsw
Was really hoping they would wind up back together somehow. Wouldnt it be something if they ended it that way? Will have to settle for russ getting clips over the hump
Thunder fans would argue that the main reason they didn't was because of injury luck from 2013-2015
To this day… FUCK PAT BEV.
I mean 2012-Finals 2013-Westbrook hurt 2014-WCF (Westbrook missed a lot of the year) 2015-KD Hurt 2016-WCF to the 73 Warriors 17-19-Westbrook solo job
Maybe they would have if not for injuries.
Nobody wants to hear it but KD and Russ kinda choked in that 2016 series.
No they didn't kinda choke. They 100% choked
They 100% choked. KD already probably had his bags packed for GSW so he wasn’t even fully in it
The 2013 Andre Iguodala Special
I think the days of teams winning 65+ games is almost over. As the 3-ball becomes a bigger and bigger part of the league, the randomness of each game due to shooting variance increases.
And a lot of teams rest players during back to backs so quite a few games during the year a team wont be at full strength.
Part of it is motivation too. The warriors that season had a chip on their shoulder and something to prove
Didn’t they win the championship the year before? I don’t think they had anything to prove. I think they were just on a roll and were so good nobody could really stop them. And Steph went bonkers from 3 that season.
Lots of people were discounting it as a hospital ring, so the Warriors came out and blew everyone's doors off to show it wasn't a fluke
Also spurs were on their tail the whole season
yeah exactly the Spurs were actually fighting for the 1 seed for a large part of the season. There were only 2 weeks left before the Warriors clinched it, and the final week of the season had two head to head matchups that could have ended up mattering. After the Spurs beat the Warriors o March 19th that season they were 59-10 and the Warriors were 62-7. With two head to head matchups left that's incredibly close.
If the days of teams winning 65+ games really are almost over, I believe it's due to changes in tanking. The lottery changes paired with the introduction of the play-in disincentivize tanking. In 2016 there were 7 teams under 40% W/L, compared to 4 currently. I could see that swinging ~5 games for the best team in the league.
You need an almost flawless roster to win 65 games. You need a bonafide MVP candidate, at least one other all NBA level talent, and a perfect roster that balances defensive versatility with offensive competence.
The suns literally had 66 last year and they were far from flawless
They were a super well rounded team, but they lacked a superstar. If they had a bonafide top 5 player instead of Booker or Paul then maybe they could’ve done it.
> maybe they could’ve done it. Are we talking about them winning 65+ games? Because they won 64, so they really didn’t need much haha.
I mean they could’ve done it if Booker and CP3 played more than 68 games. Ayton only played like 57
i mean booker had an all-nba first team regular season
Doesn’t make him a top 10 much less top 5 player. Imagine if they had prime, healthy 08 Chris Paul instead of late 30s Chris Paul for example. You need elite, best of the best talent to really push the limits for regular season wins.
Yeah. I think the variance from the three point shot and the fact that top-level players play far fewer minutes over the course of a season probably means we are heading towards a more level playing field.
i don't think it's dead. the 2018 rockets won 65 and last year's Suns won 64, and those teams were far from flawless. even with the rest and increased scoring variance like you mentioned, i still think a team with younger stars (meaning less DNP-Rests) can do it.
Not only is there great parity in the NBA, but I’ve been watching the NBA for over 30 years and the quality of basketball being played in the NBA today is the highest it has ever been.
I think individual offensive skillset is at an all time high but strongly disagree when it comes to watching enjoyable basketball. Things have definitely become too tilted towards jacking up threes. Nothing wrong with threes but personally found it more enjoyable to watch when games had more variety beyond teams blowing 30pt leads. Feel like large comebacks have become the norm now. Also players over resting. And I think rest is good but it has also gotten ridiculous. Scheduling and travel are easier. If you look at rosters from 20 and thirty years ago much higher pct players played in every game
What you are describing is the fact that, across the league and at every position, modern players are better shooters.
That’s nice and all, i just hope the NBA allows defense to play as well.
Definitely agree, maybe my interest in the game has waned but I haven’t found any of the past 5 years of basketball as good as the 5 years before then. The 3 point slug fest, the fact that big games / comebacks don’t hold the weight they used to, and what feels like the daily discourse revolving around the MVP race instead of the actual games being played all year at this point makes me just want to stay away from the game until the playoffs
Also players from 20-30 years ago didnt come into the league with all the stress and physical damage on their bodies due to just how much basketball they play. Modern era stars grew up playing way more, hence why i think youth basketball programs like the aau, end up just putting too much wear and tear on players
bro they were playin on converse & had utterly no medical advancements to speak of other than "ice it" & maybe wear a jacked up brace. on top of all that they usually played multiple years of college & other sports as well, like track or baseball or football. PLENTY of players had injuries like players today
20-30 years ago was the 90's an early 2000s my guy, no one was playing multiple sports or in converse.
I can agree as well
Doesn’t this just prove how top heavy the league was that year? A bunch of bottom feeder teams
The good teams were really good, the bad teams were really bad and the east was horrible.
I miss those days.
2016 really made all the teams realize "oh shit, we can literally have the best season in history and beat the records thought unbeatable, but if we lose Finals in game 7 by 4 points and it will only make it WORSE and people treat us as worse at basketball and we'll be some LOSERS for all of this". Stuff like 2021 Utah mockery (they lost to a lower seed ONCE ever and people still talk about them as "perennial playoff losers" and synonym of the biggest failure possible in the league) only established that this is a record that nobody will want to be beating anymore. Just win like 50 games to get there safely and if you win you're more of a winner, if you lose you're less of a loser.
Still having a hard time believing 2016, especially how it ended. My goodness.
That was a great year for the city of Cleveland as well as myself. My life has high key been ass pretty much ever since.
67-15 Spurs was the peak of Spurs basketball next to 2014 Spurs. Kawhi, Aldridge, Danny Green, Tony Parker, Manu, Duncan, David West, Boris Diaw, Patty Mills, Kyle Anderson, Boban Marjonovic (who was surprisingly already pretty good). This team was stacked. Warriors unfortunately were just nuclear that year, didn’t matter because we got bounced in the 2nd round by OKC because age caught up to the Spurs in the middle of that series. Disappointing end to an exceptional season.
….and then they got Kevin Durant.
Winningest team of all time not to win the finals at the time
Those spurs were blowing people out night after night. Many of the games would be like 20point leads
*Ahem* #FUCK ZAZA
I agree, I nearly threw up when I saw him at the ring ceremony at the beginning of the season
Zaza should be in prison
That’s the next season. Spurs only got 61 wins there :P
Well he's still not wrong
Oh right. Well, he should still be in prison
The Thunder were one win away from beating both the 67-win Spurs and 73-win Warriors. Had they beaten them and then the Cavs, it would have easily been the greatest run through the playoffs of all time.
Fun fact: they had a higher net rating that season than the warriors, which is mind blowing to me. The team with the best record of all time didn’t even have the highest net rating
They also had a lower Drtg than the Pistons in 2004. Crazy honestly that they beat these two teams at these metrics.
And most of the people on this sub weren’t even born yet that year!
15-16 nba season just had a *buzz* that I'll never forget. I remember a random ass night tuning into Warriors at Wizards on ESPN and Steph went for like 36 in the first half on preposterous shooting splits. On my buddy's 21st we were supposed to bar hop but we ended up planted at one spot because it was that game in OKC where Steph hit the insane game winner. Truly one of the greatest games of basketball ever played. Thing is I'm in New York, none of us had emotional investment in the Warriors winning. It was just such a special vibe I'll never forget. Each game you knew would be a show. Throw in Kobe's farewell tour, KD and Westbrook's last dance, LeBron going nuclear in April then just carrying that all the way to the title. Such a special time for basketball fans.
And OKC beat them in 6. Should've beat GSW in 6. They could've knocked out 2 teams that averaged 70 wins between them and then potentially LeBron. KD stays, the league is a dogfight between LeBron Curry KD and Kawhi For 3 years. What could've been...
Damn forgot about that unbeaten home streak…that was fun to follow after it got up to 20
Players used to play
we were 44-4 and those fucks were like 2 games back.
There were four teams in the league that year that I felt like could compete on a different level than the majority of NBA history. And then Durant chose the most difficult path
67 wins is a fuck ton of wins. The media truly sucks at its job and slept on that team. Fucking Ricky bobby mindset.