The Golden State Warriors made history Tuesday, setting an NBA record with their 16th win in a row to start the season. Their 111-77 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers was their latest conquest, further evidence that this year's team could actually be better than last year's squad that won 67 games and the championship. This season, the Warriors have relied on a balanced attack and lights-out shooting, as well as an other-worldly performance by Stephen Curry. We take a closer look at their numbers throughout the streak.
Margins of victory
The team's historic winning streak included 11 games in which they won by double digits, meaning they have cruised to wins of 10 points or more 69 percent of the time. The most lopsided finish: a 119-69 thrashing of the Grizzlies. The Warriors' next game after that was their closest finish, a four-point win against the Clippers.
Dialing long-distance
With elite shooters like Curry and Klay Thompson, the Warriors do a lot of damage from beyond the arc - their team shooting percentage from beyond 25 feet from the basket is the best in the NBA. A look at how the team shoots from various distances, and their league ranking in parentheses:
Curry by the numbers
Stephen Curry may have won league MVP honors last season, but the seventh-year guard is playing the best basketball of his life to start off this season. He leads the NBA in a number of statistical categories, both traditional ones like points per game and analytic ones such as Player Efficiency Rating (PER).
Dominance in Offensive Rating
Golden State's players are off the charts in terms of Offensive Rating (ORTG), a metric that measures the number of points per 100 possessions the team scores when that player is on the floor. The Warriors' top five in minutes played are all in the top six league-wide (among players averaging at least 25 minutes of playing time).
Point differential per game
So how dominant are they? The best way to see how far Golden State has distanced itself from the league is through point differential per game. Comparing them to the second and third teams in the league, the Warriors average nearly as big of a scoring cushion as the Spurs and Cavs combined. And Golden State would theoretically still win with a four-man lineup - if you completely took away the scoring contributions of Harrison Barnes (13.8 points per game) or Draymond Green (12.7), the Warriors would still have a positive differential.
