5 reasons the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors are the greatest team of all time
4. Elite point differential
The 2017 Warriors hold the point differential record for neither the regular season nor the playoffs. And yet, ignoring their place among some of the elite point differentials in NBA history would not be doing their season justice.
In terms of regular season point differential, the Warriors (+11.1) place fourth on the all-time list. They trail only the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers (+12.3), 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks (+12.3) and the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (+12.2).
All three of those teams won the championship in their respective seasons, and all three won at least 66 games, cementing their place alongside the Warriors and many of the other legendary teams that come up whenever the G.O.A.T. conversation begins.
However, none of those teams holds up quite as well once the playoff picture comes into focus.
Warriors had the 2nd-largest average scoring margin for any team that played at least 5 games that postseason pic.twitter.com/fFzRD9PF5k
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 13, 2017
The ’72 Lakers, who recorded the greatest regular season point differential in NBA history, were nowhere near as dominant in the playoffs, recording a meager +3.5 point differential and losing three of their 15 games en route to the title.
The ’71 Bucks boast the best point differential in NBA playoff history at +14.5, but keep in mind that this was an entirely different era with less star talent, where only 12 wins were needed to win a championship. It was basically the equivalent of taking away the entire first round.
As for Michael Jordan‘s unforgettable Bulls team, they might have made a stronger case in this category if not for a pair of Finals losses to the Seattle SuperSonics after going up 3-0 in the series. Their +10.6 point differential on the way to a title is nothing to sneer at, but it’s just a step below the Warriors’ +13.5 point differential.
Point differentials aren’t the only way to weigh a team’s greatness, but they’re an effective tool for measuring dominance. For the Warriors to be among these legendary teams for both regular season and playoff point differential — especially in an era where they seem more like video game numbers than real statistics — might make them the most impressive of the bunch.