LOS ANGELES — There was a time not so long ago when this was the Golden State norm.
The massive crowds showing up hours before tipoff to watch No. 30 do his basketball magic. The road games where the home team’s fans were drowned out by a legion of Warriors fans that could overtake any building. The feeling that you had to watch each game from tipoff to final buzzer, lest you miss a moment that had to be seen to be believed.
Are we really doing this best-basketball-show-on-Earth routine again? Is this Warriors team — post-Kevin Durant, pre-Klay Thompson return and with Steph Curry and Draymond Green as special as they ever were — really about to hog the league’s spotlight as they did during that historic five-year run? It sure looked that way Sunday afternoon, when their 105-90 win over the Clippers was the latest sign that this story isn’t going away anytime soon.
First, the basics.
The Warriors, this team that dropped the Play-In game to Memphis last season and thereby missed out on the playoffs, are 18-2 and will head into Tuesday’s showdown against the defending Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns with the league’s best record at the quarter mark. It will be a fun week on this front, as the 17-3 Suns — winners of 16 straight — play at the Warriors on Friday too.
That Golden State record alone puts them back in the title contender conversation far faster than anyone — probably even the Warriors themselves — could have expected. They have the league’s best net rating by a massive margin (13.6, with Utah second at 9.
