Throughout the preseason, the dominant storyline about the Golden State Warriors wasn't their league-leading record in 2014-15, their historic point differential or their championship run. Instead, we spent much of October debating how lucky Golden State was on the way to the title.
Even if you weren't a Warriors skeptic, there was still reason to expect a step backward this season because of regression to the mean in terms of health (a strength for Golden State in 2014-15), performance and motivation. Teams generally don't repeat the kind of success the Warriors enjoyed in 2015-16, let alone improve on it.
In that context, it's stunning that four games into the new season, Golden State is playing as well as at any point last season, having set an NBA record for point differential in the first four games. Suddenly, we have to ask: Is it possible the Warriors might be even better this season?