Per Pro Ref, the Warriors have the softest schedule in the league and the Spurs the second softest thus far. The Simple Rating System metric that factors in margin of victory and strength of schedule still has the Spurs way better than everyone else, and the Warriors way better than them, though. Still, that’s interesting. I wonder how much effect just not playing either the Warriors or the Spurs has on your strength of schedule.
Assuming the Warriors do get past the Pacers unscathed, it’s more cakewalk until they face the Cavs on Christmas day. They won’t see San Antonio until the end of January.
So that’s 23, and they made Indiana look pretty bad.
Winning through (and including) the Cleveland game gets them to 33 regular season wins in a row, tying the record. 33-0 on the season could happen Jan. 2 vs. Denver (and 34 would be Jan 4 vs. Charlotte). The record for a road winning streak is 16 (by LA). They’re at 13-0 (they lost their last road game last regular season) and can tie the record with a win at Dallas Dec. 30 (and break it @Houston Dec. 31). Home winning streak is 44 by the Bulls in 95-96 (two seasons obviously) so that’s a ways off yet - they have an 18-game home streak carried over from last season and so are at 28 now.
The Pacers scored 40 points in the 4th quarter to kind of make it a game. Final score 131 - 123. My goodness the Warriors played pretty good defense last year but, although they’re winning, they seem to give up a lot more this season.
Down goes Golden State! The Warriors finally dropped a game to the crappy Bucks in Milwaukee. Shouldn’t be too awfully surprising though because it was the 2nd set of a back to back and the night before it took 2 overtime periods to beat the Celtics in Boston.
Also the 7th game of a 7-game road trip. (If they had won, it would have set a record for longest road trip swept.)
Not a lot more, their defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) last year was 101.4. This season it’s 101.7. That 3 tenths of a point is the difference between being #1 of 30 last year and #8 this year, though.
GS opponents’ points per game is 102.2, putting them 20th in the league. Last season it was 99.9. So, not a ton more points per game, but it’s noticeable.
If their PPG allowed went up 2.3, but their defensive rating only went up 0.3, that just means their opponents are playing at a faster pace (more possessions per game), and indeed GS is playing faster this year, 99.3 possessions per game vs. 98.3 last year. The GS defense is worse this year, but only by the slightest of margins (that is, a third of a point per 100 possessions).
In other news…how about Dallas? They are one game back of the Clippers, with a motley starting five of Deron Williams, Wesley Matthews, Dirk, Zaza Pachulia, and Raymond Felton. Wow, just wow. How are they winning games?
Oh, and Rajon Rondo got ejected the other day for cursing at a ref; standard stuff, ref-baiting is part of the Rondo package. Except this time, he was using anti-gay slurs, and the ref in question, Bill Kennedy, has since come out as gay. Did Rondo know, or was it just standard tasteless, thoughtless trash talk? Either way - bad job, Rondo. Not only did he play for UK, he’s a Kentucky native, so I’ll still pull for him, but his quasi-apology is pretty weak sauce. He’s been suspended for a game.
Have you seen the physique on that Ref?
Speaking of Dallas, what the hell happened to Chandler Parsons? He was a big piece for them last few years and now he’s averaging like 8 points per game.
Ever since Rondo got traded from Boston he seems like a bitter old man. Maybe he was that way in Boston, I just didn’t notice.
He’s recovering from knee surgery. “I can’t believe it’s not microfracture surgery,” errr, “Minor hybrid microfracture surgery” which should set off alarm bells.
He knew. Doc Rivers used slurs against Kennedy in 2009 when Rondo played for the Celtics.
He’s still recovering from microfracture surgery, I assume. He has been pretty bad this year - he actually has a negative VORP, and is shooting 33% from 3. He did have a good game against the Suns, and says he’s feeling better.
He’s had it out for the refs, at least, for a long time:
12/11/15
The NBA suspended Rajon Rondo (Sac) for 1 game for using foul language
towards a ref and failing to leave the court in a timely manner following
his ejection from the December 3 Sac-Hou game.
1/7/13
The NBA suspended Rajon Rondo (Bos) for 1 game for making contact with a
ref during Sunday’s Bos-Atl game and failing to cooperate with an NBA
investigation.
4/30/12
The NBA suspended Rajon Rondo (Bos) for 1 game for making contact with a
ref during Sunday’s Bos-Atl game.
2/20/12
The NBA suspended Rajon Rondo (Bos) for 2 games for throwing a ball at a
ref during Sunday’s Bos-Det game.
Do we know that? Per this, the sources are questionable:
In 2010, disgraced referee Tim Donaghy callously outed Kennedy, telling a Boston radio show, “It’s no secret on the staff that Bill Kennedy is a homosexual… It was known around the league, it was obvious during a game Doc Rivers questioned his sexual orientation and I think that has stuck with Kennedy over the years.”
…
Granted, Donaghy’s words should be taken with an entire Morton’s container of salt, and Rivers is flatly denying he ever said anything of the sort. “That was not true. Sometimes, I hope I have more credibility than where that came from,” Rivers said Monday, referring to Donaghy.
…
Haralabos Voulgaris, one of the world’s most successful professional gamblers and an NBA stats expert, tweeted about the incident, initially backing up Donaghy and claiming that he personally was in attendance during the Bulls-Celtics playoff game when it allegedly occurred.
A few hours later, he began to backtrack.
We’re just beyond the halfway point of the season and the Warriors sit at 38-4. Will they beat Chicago’s record of 72-10? Should they even make that a goal? I honestly have a hard time seeing them trip up 6 more times as long as they stay healthy. If Steph Curry rolls an ankle, all bets are off.
Cavs fired David Blatt.
Brian Windhorst @WindhorstESPN
LeBron James was informed of the decision to fire David Blatt today, he was not consulted on decision sources said
“Not consulted.”
Yeah.
Right.
:rolleyes:
He was not consulted on the cavs decision to fire Blatt as per his request.