Are these Warriors the greatest 9-1 team in NBA history?
Are these Warriors the greatest 9-1 team in NBA history?
Unprompted late night ramblings from the Golden Realm
I didn’t expect the Golden State Warriors to get this hot this quickly without Klay Thompson and James Wiseman. I knew they’d be a royal pain in the you-know-what to face, but I didn’t think they were going to be stomping the will out of teams on a nightly basis like prime Robocop bringing order and justice to the street goons of 1980’s Detroit.
Even still, doubts linger:
Wow down two starters, with three orphaned children from the lottery, and “Career Low” Wiggs, somehow this team has won 9 out of their first 10 and has the best record in the NBA?
If I were a hater, would I think this is the worst 9-1 team in the history of the NBA? Whoa honestly I can’t even fathom their mentality because I don’t have hate in my blood, only gold. But it did make me start pondering what this start could mean, thanks to some help from DNHQ godfather Nate P. He gave me a link to check out some hot starts and my imagination took off from there.
Let’s time travel through the past to see some notable 9-1 starts and where they ultimately ended, via some super awesomely produced season wrap-up videos which found their way to YouTube.
1988-1989 Detroit Pistons started 9-1 and…
Ended up as champions.
The 1994-1995 Houston Rockets started out 9-1 and…
Ended up as champions.
The 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls started out 9-1 and…
Ended up as champions.
The 2007-2008 Boston Celtics started out 9-1 and…
Ended up as champions.
The 2018-2019 Warriors started out 9-1 and…
Ended up losing Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, the championship, and Oracle Arena all in the same night.
Rewatching this video is tough. Klay was cooking with hot fish grease before his night was ended prematurely by that horrendous fall. When I think about this year’s team, I think about avenging that night. I think about the long road it’s been back to relevancy and multiple weeks of domination for Golden State. We’ve got a long way to go to survive this season, but dammit we’re looking good so far.
Dub Nation is BLESSED to have the younger Splash Bro join forces with the elder to reconnect with Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala as the Core 4. Klay absolutely deserves this fever dream of team to come back to: a rampaging highlight reel machine of fun that somehow found a duality between youthful verve and unflinching veteran experience.
Warriors don’t die; we multiply. Let’s get to work in Game #11.
Btw at the 1:21 mark of that last vid is our guy Thomas “Dr. Tom” Bevilacqua featured in the final Roaracle crowd as the epitome of raw Warrior fandom #legend #DNHQWasThere
I genuinely think we can compete and win against any squad in the Western Conference. The Nuggets and the Jazz are the only teams that give me pause.
I was wondering recently how many other teams have started out 9-1 and then I come here and Daniel has already answered the question for me!
My take-aways from this:
Winning 9 out of 10 to start the season is REALLY HARD! Look at the history of all of the great teams in the NBA. Before this season only five teams have started with this exact record. It's not unusual for good teams (or even just hot teams) to have a 9-1 stretch during the season. Why does it happen so infrequently to begin the season?
Teams that start 9-1 have historically been really good. Every single one making it to the Finals? The past is certainly no guarantee of the future, but that really does point to good things for this Warriors team.
14 teams have had even better starts. 14 teams have started a season 10-0. First off, considering only 20 out of 1603 teams have started 9-1 or better it again shows how hard it is. But the odd thing to me is that out of the 1603 starts that teams have had to the regular season, more than twice have started out 10-0 than 9-1. In theory, it's easier to go 9-1 than 10-0. Why do teams achieve 10-0 more frequently than 9-1?