Il first month of the NBA weblog 2015-2016 went into the archives with an absolute protagonist team, the Golden State Warriors, a Martian disguised as a player who wants to rewrite all the winning records of every era, Steph Curry, and the sadly awaited news of the farewell to end of season Kobe Bryant; but not only that, these first five weeks of matches have given us new stars on the launch pad, welcome returns, but also some initial flops.
The scene, however, was taken by the reigning champions led by Curry, capable of winning all the first 19 games played so far, establishing seven days ago, paving the Lakers for the sixteenth success of the season, the best start in NBA history ( the 1948-49 Washington Capitols and 1993-94 Houston Rockets had stopped at 15). The fifteenth was reached at the home of Danilo Gallinari's Denver Nuggets, but already tonight the twentieth could arrive on the field of the Charlotte Hornets, for sure there is that these Golden State Warriors they may be the first team to truly undermine the 72-10 record of Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in their magical 1995-96 season (but they never won more than 18 games in a row), the only ones to have reached and surpassed the milestone of seventy victories. Behind that perfect team we find a 69-13 shared by the 1971-72 Lakers and the Bulls themselves in the post-record season (1996-97), then a 68-13 for the 1966-67 Sixers and completing the top five on 68- 14 of the 1972-73 Celtics, the only team of those five not to win the title at the end of the year.
But the next record to be targeted by Curry and his companions is also that of the 33 consecutive victories established in the 1971-72 season by the Jerry West's Lakers (the one stylized in the NBA logo) and Wilt Chamberlain who conquered the ring a few months later. The road is still very long and playing practically every two days any match can be the wrong one, Golden State is currently at a total of 23, considering the four successes at the end of last regular season (playoff games are not counted), and has already done better than the Houston Rockets led by Tracy McGrady, who stopped at 2008 between January and March 22, while in second place in this special ranking are the Miami Heat led by Lebron James, who between the beginning of March and the end of February 2013 reached 27 before being stopped by the Chicago Bulls (but at the end of the season they celebrated their second straight title).
Whatever happens, these Warriors have accomplished something crazy, starting with the victory at the opening night over New Orleans with 40 points from Curry (in the third, again against the Pelicans, he even scored 53, at the moment his season high), and continued overwhelming the opponents, such as the ventello trimmed in Texas against the Rockets or the 50 points difference given in Memphis a few days later, among which the double success against the rivals of the Los Angeles Clippers, beaten both at home and away, the second time coming from -23 and finishing 124-117, the biggest feat of this series so far. The numbers within these victories are even more stratospheric, with the 100-point wall broken regularly and a monstrous Stephen Curry up to now, with 31.6 points per game, obviously leading the league ahead of James Harden with 29.8 and Russell Westbrook with 27.6 .
It's true that Golden State probably has the best team play (certainly the funniest) of the two conferences and in the last year and a half the supporting cast around the mvp of the last season (and in all probability this one too) has grown remarkably, but it is evident even to the most ardent opponents of the soloists that the absolute protagonist is only one and it is the one in knit number 30, who is astonishing the world with circus plays and meaningless baskets and capable of literally bringing home results by himself.
And to think that on one occasion, despite the usual 34 points but in an evening for Steph with a strangely foul shooting, the winning streak could have been interrupted for some time and against an opponent certainly not among the most formidable. It was the eleventh challenge and at the Oracle Arena the guests were i Andrea Bargnani's Brooklyn Nets (but he was only used for a few minutes and scored 4 points), the Warriors eventually won 107-99 but only in overtime, after closing the first quarter down by 15, having had to come back again in the final period and being pardoned by a sensational error under the basket by Brook Lopez on the siren. That was the time the defending champions had it worse, along with the aforementioned game against the Clippers and just last night's game on the Utah field, with the Jazz having the ball again of victory a few seconds from the end.
But the match against Brooklyn was especially special for Steph Curry because on that occasion he surpassed his father Dell in the number of triples scored, now always present in the audience to admire his son's deeds, but between the late eighties and late nineties infallible with the shirt of the Charlotte Hornets. At the end of that evening Steph reached 1248 triples in his career (a figure which obviously has now increased further) while dad Dell had stopped at 1245, but the incredible thing is that it took Curry junior less than half of the times to reach this number games (427), a figure that if it continues like this (already last year he rewrote the record for triples made in the season with 286) does not leave Ray Allen calm, record holder with 2973 career goals from the arc, and before him Reggie Miller , at an altitude of 2560. Curiously one of the few records that Davidson's product hasn't managed to make its own in this sensational start to the season but has only come close is that of the number of triples scored in the first three initial games, a record that belongs to our Danilo Gallinari. Curry put "only" 17, while Gallo at the beginning of the 2009-2010 season when he wore the New York Knicks shirt put 18 bombs.
Records and primates, it must be said, are important but leave the time they find, obviously all these victories absolutely do not mean a title already in the hands of the Warriors, the playoffs are a separate story and two bad games count for more than what you did in the previous five months, but Curry and company immediately sent a strong signal to all the other suitors that celebrating an encore in the bay is something concrete. Meanwhile they don't hide, they have fun, they talk openly about the next records to reach and, above all, they are determined to make them theirs.
To do all this they will also have to silence those fans, few to tell the truth, who claim that luck has played a decisive role in Golden State's exploits in recent months, going back to the Finals played against Cleveland without Irving and Love (and there undoubtedly the task of the Warriors has been enormously facilitated) up to the beginning of this season with a calendar certainly not prohibitive. In fact, carefully re-reading the commitments of the Oakland team in this first month of the tournament, that of the winning streak, it can be seen that he has never once met the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the two strongest rivals in the western conference and currently in second and third place respectively in the standings (and so far they have never met even the fourth, the Dallas Mavericks), but above all the first duel has still been missing ( or rematch) with Lebron James' Cavs, what according to many should be the final at the end of this season as well. In addition to Cleveland, which occupies the first position in the eastern conference, Golden State has so far avoided Indiana and Miami (2nd and 4th) while with Chicago and Toronto (3rd and 5th) it has played against us once, like Houston and Memphis (which, however, as mentioned, came out with broken bones).
Reiterated that in an NBA regular season of 82 games each one hides pitfalls and keeping concentration high is almost impossible, it will be interesting to follow Golden State in its next commitments between now and New Year's Eve, starting with two away games (6 in a row) that are not easy in Charlotte and Toronto, a round that will take them to Indianapolis on the 8th and on the Boston parquet on the 11th, with the Christmas super challenge at home against Cleveland, to then finish the year with a bang in Texas, on the 30th in Dallas and on the 31st in Houston (for the Spurs and the Thunder we'll talk about it again in the new year). Find Curry and teammates still undefeated at the beginning of 2016 at the moment it would seem risky if not unreal, but records are made to be rewritten and then, as we know, the real goal is mid-June.
