Golden State Warriors Make History With 16-0 Start

For the Golden State Warriors, life couldn’t be much better right now. They own pretty much every statistical category in the NBA, their reigning MVP Stephen Curry has somehow gotten even better, and with a 111-77 win over the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night, the Dubs set a new all-time mark for the best start to a season in NBA history with a perfect 16-0 record.

It’s been one historic night after another for the Warriors this season. Curry is on pace for over 400 three-pointers this year, which would absolutely shatter his NBA single season record of 286 that he set last season. Golden State has won its last 20 regular season games and have won 85 of their last 100 regular season games overall.

The fact that they’re doing it without head coach Steve Kerr on the sidelines is a further testament to this team’s all-time greatness, not only by every tangible statistic available, but also in the context of how they stack up with the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls and whether or not they’ll be able to surpass their all-time best regular season record of 72-10.

Those questions can’t be answered in November, but that’s exactly the point that interim coach Luke Walton made after the team completed its historic feat Tuesday night: it’s only November.

That’s both terrifying and sobering all at once. For the rest of the league, it’s scary to consider that the Dubs have a point differential of +15.6 through 16 games, that their small-ball lineup has outscored opponents by 87 points in 62 minutes or that they’ve looked like an even better version of the Warriors team that won 67 games and the NBA title last season.

But for the Bay Area fans loving every second of this 16-0 start, the fact that no NBA team has won a championship in November also brings the sky high feeling of invincibility back down to earth. For a team as historically great as these Golden State Warriors, anything less than a dominant postseason run and ensuing title repeat would be a massive disappointment.

For a team that hadn’t won a championship in four decades, these are sudden, incredibly high standards to live up to. But it’s the simple truth that while these kind of record-setting nights should be enjoyed, they amount to little more than gemstones in a championship ring: significant and symbolic once the job is done, but meaningless without the championship hardware to back it up.

None of this should take away from the Dubs making history. A 16-0 start is unprecedented and deserves its due time in the sun. But that’s the unfortunate reality of heightened expectations: everything along the way is seen as an added bonus upon reflection, but if the ultimate goal never comes to fruition, these minor feats will be a stinging reminder of how greatness was within reach and slipped away.

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This early in the season, it’s far too soon to be looking ahead to April and May. As so many teams learned last season, an injury or a bad playoff matchup can change everything.

But for the Warriors, who had to endure a summer of ridiculous questions about the validity of their championship run and whether or not they got “lucky,” the 2015-16 season has been a meticulous warpath through teams considered to be their biggest challenges — something of a giant middle finger to anyone who dared imply that the Dubs’ title run was a fluke.

Through the first month of the NBA season, the Warriors are the best team in the league by every possible measure. They’re the most aesthetically pleasing team in the league, they have the NBA’s most likable player right now and of all the teams who have been compared to Michael Jordan‘s Bulls, this one is actually deserving of the comparison.

We are witnessing history every time the Golden State Warriors take the floor, pure and simple.

Next: NBA Power Rankings: Week 5

But as Walton pointed out, their work isn’t done yet. No matter how long this opening streak continues, the Warriors have their sights set on something greater in 2015-16. We should enjoy the pure fun along the way, but anything less than a championship would amount to the same kind of inconsequential asterisk that Golden State has been fighting against since their title defense season began.