Golden State Warriors are deserved favourites, but it’s a rocky path to NBA title

NBA aficionado Bill Simmons cited an interesting statistic in his Grantland column this weekend concerning regular-season dominance.

The Golden State Warriors this season became only the seventh team to win 80 per cent of their games and compile a point differential of better than plus-10.

The previous six went on to win the NBA title.

Entering the play-offs, the Warriors are deserved favourites, their prolific regular season and MVP-worthy contribution from Stephen Curry the chief factors.

But to amplify their standing in the rarefied 80/10 club is perhaps to undersell the threats that lie ahead.

> Overqualified for first round, Spurs and Clippers series would be worthy of NBA Finals

> James Harden proves too much ‘a handful’ as Houston Rockets cruise

> Derrick Rose, for a night at least, is MVP again for Chicago Bulls

The San Antonio Spurs, defending champions, since March are 19-4 (.826 winning percentage) with a plus-12.78 point differential.

The Cleveland Cavaliers since LeBron James’s return from an injury/sabbatical on January 13 are 32-8 (.800) with a plus-9.95 point differential in games he has played in. The 80/10 air is not quite as rarefied, viewed through that lens.

It is an arbitrarily selective sample to some extent, of course. But it is also fair to think the Spurs, adept at playing a kind of long-con with the regular season, and Cavaliers, not nearly the same team without LeBron at his best, are perhaps better represented by their recent form than by their full-season bodies of work.

That is without accounting for the likes of the dangerous Clippers, Grizzlies, Rockets or Hawks. This has been a great year for NBA competitiveness, and it would be foolish to assume the Warriors will storm through the play-offs to a championship, on the heels of their historically great season.

Golden State have earned their favourites status, but to earn a title they will need to traverse a path littered with land mines.

There are no guarantees in this year’s NBA.

jraymond@thenational.ae

Golden State Warriors are deserved favourites, but it’s a rocky path to NBA title

Entering the NBA play-offs, the Golden State Warriors are deserved favourites thanks to their prolific regular season and an MVP-worthy contribution from Stephen Curry. But to amplify their standing is perhaps to undersell the threats that lie ahead.