10 New Reasons to Love the 73–9 Golden State Warriors

Looking for more reasons to celebrate the greatest team in NBA history? You’re in luck!

Surely, we have run out of superlatives to describe the absolute dominance of Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, right? Then again, maybe not. What the best player and the best team in the world have done during the 2015–16 NBA regular season is so shocking and new and unparalleled, perhaps we have taken it all for granted.

So, in the interest of keeping things in proper perspective, here are 10 new ways to revel in the unprecedented dominance of the greatest team the NBA has ever seen:

1. The Warriors just went 73–9!

• The team lost nine games all year. 22 teams had already lost nine games by the first Sunday in December. The 76ers had already done it both home and away.
• The Ws could’ve lost their final seven games, after previously losing seven all year, and they still would’ve finished with the fourth best record of all time.
• 73 wins? The Warriors could pretty easily end up winning 89 of 100 games this year, playoffs included, if they win the Championship, too.
• The poor 76ers have amassed 73 wins in total since a few days before Thanksgiving … in 2012.

2. The Warriors achieved a 54-game home winning streak

• The Houston Texans joined the NFL in 2002 as an expansion team. They have won 56 regular season home games in franchise history.
• Should the Warriors lose each and every road playoff game, but win all home contests, they would finish 89–21 as NBA champions and set the all-time record for total wins in a season.
• Prior to Golden State losing last week at home to snap the streak, the last time it lost on its home floor was on January 27, 2015. That was so long ago, it was against a Bulls team led by Tom Thibodeau. Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Pau Gasol each played 40+ minutes. The Bulls eked out a two-point victory. In overtime.
• Per @RosenbergMerc, the median cost for a house in Oakland rose from $420,000 to $550,000 in between Warriors home losses.
• The last time the Dubs lost at home, Brian Williams was still trustworthy, Jon Stewart was still on the air, 50 Shades of Grey was only available in print, Caitlyn Jenner was still Bruce, and Kanye was still collaborating with Paul McCartney instead of, well, Kanye.

3. The Warriors pass the ball better than any team in the league

• Golden State led the NBA during the 2015–16 season with 2373 assists. The next closest team, the Atlanta Hawks had 273 fewer dimes.
• The Warriors averaged over 29 assists per game. That’s three per game more than the next closest team, almost seven (!) per game more than the league average, and a full eleven per game more than the Los Angeles Lakers.
• An incredible 68 percent of the Warriors’ field goals made were assisted.
• By contrast, just 46 percent of reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry’s shots are assisted, whereas 75 percent of the shots made by each of his teammates came via assist.

4. The Warriors have the “Death Lineup”

• The Warriors’ trio of Curry, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala has outscored opponents by 459 points in 853 minutes together on the court. That’s the equivalent of +25.8 points against any opponent over a 48-minute game.
• Add Klay Thompson to the mix and the quarter has outscored opponents by +32.0 points over a full game.
• The complete Death Lineup includes Harrison Barnes, comprising a small ball lineup that played 171 minutes together and outscored opponents by 156 points! That’s +43.8 over a full game.
• The Death Lineup outscores opponents by almost a full point every minute they’re on the court together. Incredible.
• Even more incredible? Head coach Steve Kerr is well aware of the power of the Death Lineup, yet has only deployed for an average of two minutes per game this season. The Warriors STILL went 73–9.

5. The Warriors are even more impressive than you think

• The best team 3-point shooting percentage ever over the course of an NBA season was accomplished by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996–97 (42.8 percent). Golden State’s 41.5 percent this season was the second-best ever, BUT those Hornets were playing when the 3-point-line was almost two feet closer to the rim.
• The Dubs averaged over 13 threes made per game. The team could have elected to stop shooting from long range altogether some 100 makes ago and STILL bested the 2014-15 Houston Rockets record of 11.4 per game.
• The Warriors led the league in shooting percentage at 48.7 percent, finishing just ahead of the 67–15 San Antonio Spurs (48.4 percent)— despite shooting over a thousand more threes(!).
• Golden State’s defense allowed 104 points per game, 12th most in the league, this while playing at the second-fastest pace. (More possessions means more scoring chances for both teams.) For all its offensive dominance, the team still sports a Top-5 defensive rating, too.
• The Ws rank second in effective FG percentage allowed. They are first on offense and sport a +8.3 percent better efficiency on offense than defense. Every six times up and down the court, the Warriors outscored their opponent by a full point. Combine that with the team’s pace and it’s simply devastating to the opposition.
• Golden State is so good that Curry played less than 32 minutes in 25 games, effectively sitting out the fourth quarter in a third of the team’s games. Imagine how good the Warriors would look had played Curry played 425 more minutes this year like James Harden. (Instead of the same minutes as Joe Johnson.)

6. Curry and Thompson averaged 8.5 threes per game combined this year

• Curry tied the NBA single-game record with 12 threes a month ago against the Oklahoma City Thunder — and it wasn’t even the most memorable thing about the game. You assumed he already had the record didn’t you?
• There have been 84 games in NBA history where someone made at least nine threes. Curry and Thompson have done it eight times — THIS season! Collectively, the duo has done it 14 times in their young careers.
• There have been just 30 games in NBA history with a player making at least 10 threes. Curry has done it four times in last two months. He’s the only player to do it in back-to-back games.
• There have been 33 games in NBA history with a player taking at least 17 three point attempts. Neither Curry nor Thompson had ever done it until the final night of this season.
• Curry and Thompson are not about quantity over quality; they bring both. The pair is on pace to finish among the top-5 most three point attempts ever in a season while also being ranked in the top-5 most accurate at 45.4 percent and 42.5 percent, respectively.
• Combined, Curry’s and Thompson’s 678 threes rank them at or ahead of 14 other entire NBA teams — including the Spurs and the Thunder.

7. Curry broke his own record for most threes made in an NBA season

• Curry has made 1593 career threes and broke into the top-20 all-time this season. Oh, he also just turned 28 a month ago. He may break Ray Allen’s career record for threes by age 32, and if he stays healthy, he’ll presumably play another six to eight seasons.
• Thompson finished second in the league in threes made (276), with 40 more than James Harden. He’s finished second in the league behind Curry for three straight years and has increased his output each season.
• In fact, Thompson scored the third-most threes ever in an NBA season this year, setting the non-Curry record of 269 by Ray Allen. He was just 10 threes away from breaking the previous all-time season record. He did this without anyone noticing since Curry was busy outpacing him by over 100 threes.

8. Curry didn’t just break the record for 3s in a season — he obliterated it

• Curry broke the record for 3PMs in a season in February. With 24 games remaining on the slate. This is insane.
• He finished the year with 402 threes. No one had ever even hit 300 in a single season, but he surpassed the 400 mark on the final night of Golden State’s historic season, breaking his old record by 116 more treys, an absurd 40.6 percent increase.

This is what some other records would look like if improved by 40.6 percent:

• Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hit streak would increase to 79 games, about half the MLB season.
• Barry Bonds’ 73 homers? Try 103.
• Wilt’s 100-point game? How about an all-time single-game high of 141.
• Three times this decade the NFL’s passing TD record has been broken at 49, 50, and 55, respectively. Don’t expect a new record of 77 TDs to go down anytime soon.
• The record marathon time would drop from 2 hours, 3 minutes to just 1 hour, 12 minutes. That average 2:45 mile would crush the fastest mile time by almost a minute.
• Fastest two minutes in sports? The Kentucky Derby may need a new moniker. The new record time would be 1 minute, 11 seconds. Secretariat would still be rounding the first turn of his final lap, and the new winning horse would lap a couple competitors. On a two-lap race.
• 9.72, 9.69, 9.58 … how about 5.69 seconds?! Sorry Jamaica, the new 100-meter dash record would be a little out of reach.
• 69 hot dogs in ten minutes? Try 97. Eat your heart out, Joey Chestnut.
• The oldest person history is believed to be Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997). The new oldest human, born that same day, would not die until 2047.
• The new heaviest human being ever? 1968 pounds.
• The new tallest man? 12'6!

9. How about some additional Curry stats — just because

• Curry scored 30+ points in over half his games this season. He scored 40+ in 13, just shy of once per six contests.
• He scored 20+ points in a quarter 11(!) times this year. No one else did it more than three times. He did it twice on the final night of the season.
• Curry made 402 threes this season. Harden had 374 turnovers.
• He made 5.1 threes per game. The entire Minnesota Timberwolves team made just 5.5 per game.
• Curry also led the league in steals (for the second straight year). Why not?
• Curry’s 63.0 percent effective field goal percentage ranks 14th best all time. Everyone else in the top-23 is 6'10 or taller (meaning, they shot from much closer to the rim).
• Curry completed his regular season with a 31.56 PER, just behind Wilt’s record 1962–63 season. Chamberlain averaged 44.8 points, 24.3 boards, and 3.4 assists a game that season.
• OBPM is a measure of offensive points per 100 possessions that a player contributes above an average player. The record (since 1973) belonged to Michael Jordan in 1987-88 season at 9.82. Curry finished at 12.2 this year. To put that into some sort of context, Curry finished as far ahead of MJ’s best offensive year as MJ was ahead of Kevin Love’s best year ever in Minnesota.

10. For all his production, Curry made just $11,370,786 this season

• Curry is the 65th highest paid player in the NBA. He’s paid less than Roy Hibbert, David Lee, Nikola Pekovic, Amir Johnson, and JaVale McGee.
• Curry is the fifth(!) highest paid player on his own team behind Thompson, Green, Bogut and Iguodala.
• Curry made the same money this season as JJ Hickson and Martell Webster, and he made only half as much as Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard. And he has to play under this contract for another year.
• In the amount of time it took you to read this, the U.S. national debt just went up by slightly more than Golden State paid Curry this year.

Stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference. If you enjoyed this, please recommend by clicking the ❤ so others can too. Follow Brandon on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, humor, pop culture, and life musings. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here.