Dwight Howard Forgets Who the NBA's Best Team Is

It's understandable that Dwight Howard came up empty in the immediate aftermath of a Wednesday night thrashing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors. His brain was probably still a bit muddled after the flat-out walloping he and the Houston Rockets received. 

Sure, the final score of the contest between the two Western Conference powers only featured a 13-point margin. But the Warriors were up 102-78 heading into the final quarter, and only late-game scrums and garbage time kept Houston from allowing the final spread to make the contest look like something other than a blowout. 

"I think the [Atlanta] Hawks are the best team," Howard told reporters after the final buzzer when asked if the Warriors were the best team in the league, per CSN Bay Area (h/t ProBasketballTalk's Dan Feldman). 

Naturally, that led to a follow-up question.

After the Dubs had just trounced Howard's Rockets, beating them for the fourth time in as many tries this season, how in the world could the big man possibly think that any team other than Golden State was tops in the NBA? 

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"Because they've got the best record, right?"

Well, not exactly. In fact, the Hawks haven't had a better record than the Warriors at any point during the 2014-15 campaign. For that matter, the Warriors have had the league's best record during almost every single day of the current season, as they got off to a 5-0 start and didn't receive their third loss until the middle of December. 

After reporters told Howard this—albeit in simpler fashion—he responded: "They don't? Well, I thought they were the best team."

Again, I'm sure that the center's cerebral functioning was just a bit off after the blowout loss. Adrenaline was surely in play, and he couldn't possibly have been bitter about moving to 0-4 against the actual best team in the NBA. 

Maybe he was simply supporting his superstar teammate. After all, we have video footage of James Harden telling the rest of the Rockets in a huddle that the Warriors "ain't even that good." 

Thing is, they are that good. 

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At 34-6, the Warriors quite clearly have the best record in the NBA. They're on pace to win 70 games, reaching a milestone that only the 72-win Chicago Bulls of 1995-96 have ever gotten to. It may seem insane, but we're nearing the end of January, and it still feels as though Golden State has a legitimate shot at somehow getting to 73 wins and dethroning that Michael Jordan-led squad. 

The Hawks have been quite good, but they're still not in the same class as the Association's top dogs. 

As Bleacher Report's Jared Dubin wrote after a detailed head-to-head comparison of the Hawks and Warriors: "As good as the Hawks have been of late, Golden State is just flat-out better, and it frankly isn't all that close."

Once Howard's mind clears, I'm sure he'll agree.