As if the 31-14 Golden State Warriors, who already are the top seed in the Western Conference and have a top five record in the league, needed any more help, somehow they still found a way to get better. This past week, the Warriors added back Demarcus Cousins, an All-Star center coming off injury who last averaged 20+ points and double-digit rebounds over the last six years.
This team has already come into the NBA regular season the last two years expected to win the title by a landslide. But this season is by far the most lopsided I think it has ever been.
To put this into perspective, the Warriors starting lineup consists of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Demarcus Cousins. If you know anything about basketball, when you read off those names on a single roster, you would think it was for an All-Star game or maybe somebody's created team on NBA 2K19. Unfortunately, this is not a one-game thing or just the product of fantasy basketball. This is a real roster with real championship aspirations.
I'm not usually too much of a stats guy, but most recently, the Warriors had two games in Los Angeles that give a lot of perspective as to how dominant this Warriors team is becoming just by one mid-season acquisition.
The first game was versus the Los Angeles Clippers on January 18th, Cousins' first game back since his injury. In this game, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Cousins combined 33 points while Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry combined for 52. Not only did Durant and Curry pick up the slack in the scoring department, considering the off night for the other starters, but their starting lineup accounted for 85 of their 112 points in a 112-94 blowout win.
The second game was on January 21st against the Los Angeles Lakers. Durant, Curry, Green, and Cousins scored a combined 44 points. So what does Klay do? He proceeds to match them by scoring 44 points of his own. This one-sided scoring feat by Thompson tilted the scale in favor of the Warriors, giving their starting unit 88 of their 130 points in their win with a final score of 130 - 111. Again,a blowout win.
If this is not firepower, then I don't know what is.
This team has the ability to score with ease. It does not matter who scores the most as long as they score more than the other team.
All I'm saying is if you thought the Warriors were a lock before, it's only going to get harder to think anything different. They may not be able to control time, space, power, mind, reality and the soul like Thanos could in the movies, but in terms of the NBA, they may be able to control things even better.
Between Steph and Klay's marksmanship from the three-point line, Durant's ability to score in a multitude of ways, Green's versatility on the defensive end, and Cousins' ability to control the paint both offensively and defensively with his presence and skill set, this starting lineup may be one of the most talented lineups in NBA history.
To sound off, I'll leave you with this little nugget of information. The 2019 Warriors are the first NBA team to trot out five All-Stars in their starting lineup since the Boston Celtics of the '70s. I'm really starting to think the Warriors are just trying to make the NBA's version of the Super Friends or something, but who cares as long as they win the title, right?