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NBA Power Rankings: Klay Thompson, Warriors Have League Asking Who's Next Best?
November 2, 2018NBA Power Rankings: Klay Thompson, Warriors Have League Asking Who's Next Best?
It's ironic that the Golden State Warriors' pyrotechnics—on display every night from Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson (take your pick)—sap the drama from our power rankings.
But how do you manufacture tension in the race for the No. 1 spot when guys on the same team keep turning in 25-point quarters and 50-plus-point efforts without even getting off the bench in the final period? Thompson's record-setting 14 threes in 27 minutes against the Chicago Bulls on Monday were just the latest in this season's uninterrupted procession of Warriors preposterousness.
At least the race for second place is more interesting.
As always, these rankings reflect the current league hierarchy. They consider each team's overall resume, health and recent performance. Head-to-head matchups are starting to matter more, but just because one team loses to another (even if it happened recently), that doesn't mean the winner is the objectively better squad. We'd have to reorder these things every night if we gave in to those kinds of knee-jerk assessments.
Enjoy, and see you next week after Durant hits 17 one-legged fallaways in a row. Or, I don't know, Curry decides he's only shooting left-handed from the other team's three-point line.
30-26
Last week's ranking in parentheses.
30. Cleveland Cavaliers (30)
What was Cleveland management expecting?
Tyronn Lue is gone after a 0-6 start (fun fact: The former head coach went 1-18 in games without LeBron James on his team), and it's hard to understand what the front office learned between the summer and loss No. 6 on Saturday. Everyone had to know the Cavs would struggle. Moving on from Lue at this juncture indicates impatience or delusion. Neither bodes well for the Cavaliers.
With Lue gone and Kevin Love in line to miss more than a month because of a toe injury, the youth movement must begin in earnest.
Fun fact: Not-the-interim-head-coach-but-maybe-the-voice-of-the-head-coach-let's-be-serious-nobody-knows-what's-happening-here Larry Drew won his first game upon replacing Lue. He's got as many wins without LeBron as Lue.
29. Chicago Bulls (29)
Zach LaVine's defense is still about as bad as it gets on the wing, but he's playing like one of the best offensive weapons in the league.
Last year, four players exceeded 60 percent true shooting with a 30 percent usage rate: James Harden, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. LaVine is at 62.7/34.1 through his first eight games, and he's led Chicago in scoring in all of them.
Long a dangerous shooter, LaVine is juicing his offense by attacking the basket more than ever. He's taking a career-high 39.2 percent of his shots from inside three feet and making an incredible 71.7 percent from that range.
He's been one of few bright spots for the 2-6, injury-plagued Bulls.
28. Phoenix Suns (27)
In his first four seasons, TJ Warren never attempted more than 3.2 treys per 100 possessions. This year, he's making 3.3. Warren never gets to the line, and he won't keep shooting 48 percent from deep. But he's meaningfully improved, and that's not easy to do five years into a career.
The Suns have looked atrocious since their opening-night win, dropping six straight and ranking 27th on offense and 28th on defense. Deandre Ayton may already be the game's best interior finisher. He leads the league in restricted-area field-goal percentage (among guys who are getting at least five shots per game from that range) by a considerable margin.
27. Orlando Magic (24)
The Magic don't have anyone to generate advantages on offense. No slithery point guard to pierce the defense. No pick-and-roll wizard. No reliable post-up weapon (who won't destroy the defense, Nikola Vucevic). No lights-out floor-spacing shooter.
No surprise, then, that Orlando ranks 30th in offensive efficiency through its first seven games, five of which have been losses.
26. Atlanta Hawks (25)
The Hawks went 0-4 this week with a quartet of double-digit losses.
Trae Young sprinkles in a gem once every two or three games (24 points on 9-of-13 shooting against Cleveland on Tuesday, for example), but he'll turn in more than his share of 3-of-12 nights. That's part of the reason Atlanta ranks just ahead of Orlando in offensive rating, which is not an achievement.
25-21
25. New York Knicks (28)
When a team is this bereft of scoring punch, the guys who can get shots up have no choice but to chuck. Tim Hardaway Jr. ranks third in the league in shot attempts per 36 minutes.
Hardaway has hit more than half his shots in only one game this year, a 10-of-19 outing in Wednesday's 107-101 loss to the Pacers, but his three-heavy approach is producing true-shooting numbers (58 percent) above the league average of 55.5 percent. In light of the circumstances, that's impressive.
The Knicks are 2-6 but have a pair of single-digit losses on their ledger. They're not as bad as their record suggests, and they roasted the Nets by 19 points Monday.
24. Washington Wizards (20)
If you're the guy in line for $170 million in a deal that starts next year, and if you're the guy most vociferously calling out teammates for a lack of effort, you can't play like John Wall is.
Washington's point guard has effectively stopped moving when he doesn't have the ball. He stands around on offense and puts forth minimal defensive effort. Wall's average speeds, both overall and on defense, rank last on the team.
Washington surrendered 136 points to the L.A. Clippers on Sunday, and then scored just 95 points in a loss to Memphis on Tuesday. At 1-6 with a minus-9.9 net rating, the Wizards have been the East's most disappointing team.
The only saving grace: Washington's five-game road trip out West is finally over.
23. Dallas Mavericks (23)
According to ESPN.com's Kevin Pelton:
"The Mavericks' offensive qSQ (54.1 percent) ranks third in the league, but their actual 51.1 percent effective shooting is just 17th—worse than league average. It's the reverse at the other end of the court, where Dallas' opponents have the ninth-worst shot quality (51.7 percent) but have actually posted a league-high 57.6 percent eFG."
Translation: Dallas has been unlucky on both ends.
Wesley Matthews' curious last-second foul against LeBron James on Wednesday didn't help. Luka Doncic had just led a 13-point fourth-quarter comeback (including a game-tying floater) when Matthews inexplicably fouled James, gifting L.A. free throws and the win.
DeAndre Jordan has snatched double-digit boards in every game this year, defended the rim at a top-tier level and, most remarkably, has been ridiculous from the foul line, hitting at an 82.4 percent rate.
Dallas has lost five straight, but other than Matthews' gaffe, misfortune has had a lot to do with that.
22. Brooklyn Nets (22)
Spencer Dinwiddie's game-tying and game-winning threes gave the Nets a 120-119 overtime win against the Pistons, saving them from a 0-4 week. The point guard averaged 16.3 points on lights-out shooting (53.7 percent from the field, 51.9 percent from deep) in our latest rankings session, and he's looking like a good candidate to get paid in free agency this summer.
The Nets have the NBA's third-worst turnover and defensive rebound rates. Cleaning up those areas would go a long way toward more consistent success.
21. Minnesota Timberwolves (21)
Derrick Rose produced one of the more improbable 50-point efforts in recent memory, posting his career-high in a 128-125 victory over Utah on Wednesday and getting the Wolves to 4-4. Pressed into starting duties with Jeff Teague (knee) and Tyus Jones (foot) sidelined, Rose erupted for his half-century total after failing to score more than 40 in a game since 2011.
If nothing else, Rose's big night briefly distracted from the interminable Jimmy Butler saga. The level of absurdity is making everyone around the team a little loopy. Just ask color commentator Jim Petersen, who couldn't beat back a case of the giggles when his partner, Dave Benz, explained Butler was sitting out as a "precaution against general soreness."
Butler's ready to miss games for an extended period as he redoubles his efforts to get out of Minnesota, according to Shams Charania and Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
For the love of hockey, politeness, Kevin Garnett and everything else holy in Minnesota, someone please end this.
20-16
20. Memphis Grizzlies (19)
The Grizzlies are taking the league's highest percentage of attempts within the last four seconds of the shot clock, and they're only hitting 28.8 percent of those looks. As the rest of the NBA increases the pace and hunts transition chances early in the clock, Memphis is adopting a different approach.
You can easily judge the efficacy of that strategy: Memphis ranks 23rd in offensive efficiency.
A 2-0 week would normally mean a rankings climb, but nobody's getting excited by wins over Phoenix and Washington.
19. Sacramento Kings (26)
After winning no more than two games in a row last year, the Kings are on a 5-0 run, which constitutes one of the league's biggest early surprises.
During this stretch, De'Aaron Fox has emerged as the team's clear leader. He gutted out back soreness to lead Sacramento over Orlando on Tuesday and has played with the kind of fearlessness that galvanizes a team. On Thursday against Atlanta, Fox exploded for 31 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds on 9-of-13 shooting. Considering the competition, it's probably a mistake to call it an "arrival" game, but the Kings point guard is, well, here.
He, Buddy Hield and Willie Cauley-Stein are the offensive core Sacramento has lacked for years.
18. Los Angeles Lakers (15)
Lonzo Ball remained the Lakers' starting point guard after Rajon Rondo's return from suspension, and even if Ball called himself out for substandard play, he should remain the unquestioned starter. That's because even a bad start for him is pretty darn good.
Ball is averaging 10.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game while hitting 41 percent of his threes. There are only five other players in the league who are equaling or exceeding each of those figures.
L.A. was lucky to survive Dallas' comeback attempt on Wednesday, escaping the week with a 1-2 mark as it continues to search for an identity with LeBron James.
17. Miami Heat (13)
Rodney McGruder's growth hasn't shown up in just one area, but the most notable expansion of his game has to be in the passing department.
After never posting an assist percentage better than 8.8 percent, McGruder has that number all the way up to 15.9 percent. He's finding Hassan Whiteside for lobs, making the right reads in the pick-and-roll and playing a more well-rounded offensive style than ever.
He's been vital, as James Johnson and Wayne Ellington (a key playmaker and an important shooter) have missed time with a hernia and an ankle injury, respectively.
Miami, 1-2 this past week, is looking like a quintessential mid-pack outfit. The Heat are 15th on offense and 14th on D.
16. Detroit Pistons (16)
We didn't overreact to a 4-0 start riddled with close results, and we won't panic in the wake of Detroit's 0-3 week—which included a pair of single-digit road losses. Detroit was a mediocre club when it strung together all those wins, and it's still fair to think of it that way.
Blake Griffin has been better than mediocre, though, and he's mostly done his damage alone. A stunning 79.1 percent of his field goals have been unassisted—a statistic that would have seemed impossible when Griffin was a setup-dependent lob-finisher early in his career. Now, he's the creator, as evidenced by his league-leading 90.6 touches per game.
15-11
15. Charlotte Hornets (18)
It's early, and samples are small...but sign me up for more of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at center!
Head coach James Borrego is messing around with undersized lineups that feature the 6'7" MKG or the 6'9" Marvin Williams at the 5, and the results have been excellent. The Hornets' four best five-man-unit net ratings all feature Kidd-Gilchrist as the power forward or center, and the group that includes Kemba Walker, Tony Parker, Malik Monk and Nicolas Batum has blown the doors off opponents (again, in a small sample).
When the intensity and hustle we've long associated with MKG comes at center, it changes the tone of a game. Check out this chase-down block. Kidd-Gilchrist begins the play sprawled on his own baseline and sprints the length of the floor to catch Josh Richardson and rudely fling his layup attempt out of bounds. Nobody should invoke the Draymond Green comparison, but Kidd-Gilchrist seems to have found his niche.
Don't forget Miles Bridges, who also does cool stuff for the 4-5 Hornets.
14. Oklahoma City Thunder (17)
Tuesday's 128-110 win over the Clippers won't turn OKC's season around on its own, but it was a welcome sign that, eventually, the Thunder will figure out how to score.
Led by Paul George's 32 points, OKC ran up a 39-10 advantage in the third quarter of that game. It was easily the Thunder's best offensive stretch of the year.
As Oklahoma City rounds into form following a 0-4 start, the next order of business might be scrapping lineups that include both Westbrook and Dennis Schroder. OKC may have intended to play both of its point guards in critical closing stretches, but the stats show the pairing is failing miserably on both ends.
Still, OKC is trending in the right direction after a crummy start.
13. Los Angeles Clippers (14)
It's hard to know how much stock to put into blowout wins over the reeling Rockets and Wizards, but those big-margin victories (by an average of 26 points) go a long way toward juicing a team's net rating. Add that to the pile of stats that make L.A.'s true talent level unclear.
Another example: The Clips are limiting opponents to one of the lowest effective field-goal percentages in the league, but they're allowing more attempts at the rim than anyone. Considering L.A. doesn't have a real rim-protector (low-minute marvel Boban Marjanovic excluded), it seems unlikely the overall defensive performance will continue to rank in the top 10.
12. Philadelphia 76ers (10)
Dario Saric can't hit a shot, Ben Simmons turned the ball over 11 times against the Raptors on Tuesday and Markelle Fultz is still starting, which limits the minutes last season's best five-man unit (Simmons, JJ Redick, Robert Covington, Saric and Joel Embiid) share the floor.
Scan Philly's game log, and you'll find losses to the Celtics, Raptors and Bucks—all by 15 or more points.
That about settles it until something changes: The Sixers can roll over the majority of the league, but they just aren't at the level of the East's elite.
11. San Antonio Spurs (12)
The Spurs' defense was always going to suffer without Dejounte Murray (torn ACL) at the point, but his backcourt replacement options—mainly Bryn Forbes and Patty Mills—make sense alongside DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge. Both guards provide better spacing and shooting than Murray ever could have, which allows San Antonio's top scorers more freedom to operate.
DeRozan has thrived more than anyone else. He averaged 29.7 points per game in a 3-0 week and has led the Spurs in assists in five of their seven contests.
"He's turned out to be maybe the best passer on our team, frankly," head coach Gregg Popovich said of DeRozan, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com.
Leave it to the Spurs to overcome injuries and an odd personnel mix by tapping into the distribution skills of a player once believed to be nothing more than a ball-stopping scorer. This team just finds a way.
10. Houston Rockets
Last Week: 6
After his team fell 133-113 to the Clippers on Friday, head coach Mike D'Antoni told Kelly Iko of The Athletic (warning: link contains NSFW language): "You know, some of the new guys and some of the other guys never switched [on defense] before. You know, so it's different, but that's not an excuse. We just weren't good. I don't know if we'll be a great defensive team the way we are right now, but we can be a lot better than this."
Aaaaaaaaaand then the Rockets scored just 85 points, their lowest home output of the D'Antoni era, in a blowout loss to the Blazers on Tuesday. The defeat was Houston's fourth in a row, dropping its record to 1-5.
Say what you will about the losses of Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute. Carp about the fact that Carmelo Anthony hasn't been a helpful defender since the Bush administration. Note the hamstring injury to James Harden and the suspension for Chris Paul.
Those are all concerns, but there's just no way the Rockets will stay this bad. It's impossible. They're deep, and they've got an in-prime MVP, one of the greatest point guards of all time, an ideal modern center and, despite some personnel losses, more useful wings than most teams.
This will turn around, but Houston has fallen from second to 10th with alarming speed.
9. Indiana Pacers
Last Week: 11
The Indiana Pacers blew out the Spurs to close our last rankings session and then went on to win two of its next three to secure a 5-3 mark and a plus-6.6 net rating.
That the Pacers continue to succeed despite owning the third-lowest three-point attempt rate in the NBA remains unusual, but after it ranked 26th in that category a year ago, maybe we should have seen this coming. Fortunately for their offense, the Pacers knock down their few attempts. At 41.6 percent on the year, they rank first in three-point accuracy.
Quality over quantity is working. Of course, the league trend is to increase the long-range volume at the expense of efficiency. So you could argue the Pacers would be better served by firing up a few more long balls, even if that'd lead to a lower rate of makes.
Sixth man Tyreke Evans was suspended against the Cavs on Saturday for tardiness, only to return with a lackluster minus-22 in 15 minutes of Indiana's 103-93 loss to the Blazers on Tuesday. He's not yet delivering on the enthusiasm that accompanied his signing.
Final note: Domantas Sabonis has outplayed Myles Turner. If that trend continues, Indiana might regret extending Turner this past offseason, as that four-year commitment may make it tough to retain Sabonis long term.
8. New Orleans Pelicans
Last Week: 4
Injuries have hit the New Orleans Pelicans hard lately, interrupting what had been one of the league's strongest starts. Anthony Davis' sore elbow kept him out of losses to Utah and Denver this week, and his return wasn't enough to push the Pels past Golden State on Wednesday. Clearly not himself, Davis rested against Portland on Thursday.
Though the impact of their absences don't combine to equal Davis', it's worth noting that Elfrid Payton (ankle), Darius Miller (quad) and Julius Randle (plantar fasciitis) have all been dinged up as well.
Injuries are inevitable, but the Pels could have done without so many cropping up during what will be the toughest four-game stretch they'll play this season. Had Davis been fully healthy against Utah, Denver, Golden State and Portland (faced in a six-day span, no less) we would have gotten a sense of where New Orleans resides in the West power structure. Instead, the Pelicans are coming off a 0-4 stretch that told us almost nothing about their true talent level.
The beleaguered Pels have to lose some ground. They'll probably regain it once Davis is back in form.
7. Portland Trail Blazers
Last Week: 9
The Portland Trail Blazers went 3-1 on their recent four-game road trip, including victories at Indiana and Houston.
The second unit led the way against Indiana, as Zach Collins (career-high 17 points), Evan Turner and Nik Stauskas led a second-half surge in the 103-93 victory. Collins has consistently outperformed starter Jusuf Nurkic, at least in terms of on-court net rating, per Cleaning the Glass.
You've got to account for the fact that Nurkic sees more action against starters, but Collins' activity, athleticism and theoretical ability to stretch the floor gives Portland a different look. At the very least, the Blazers should be happy to have options in the middle.
CJ McCollum is struggling to finish inside, hitting just seven of his first 31 shots in the restricted area. His conversion rate from that range is last in the league (among players who've attempted at least 30 shots) by a country mile. Always more reliant on craft and guile than raw athleticism, McCollum has never been a great close-range finisher; he's excelled as an in-between scorer instead.
That's a suboptimal way to get buckets efficiently, and if McCollum has to rely on mid-range artistry more, it'll be difficult for him to be a consistent source of offense. So far, he's been so good from everywhere but point-blank territory that it hasn't hurt the Blazers. Hopefully for them, he'll get some layups to fall.
6. Denver Nuggets
Last Week: 5
The Denver Nuggets are 7-1 despite some early struggles from beyond the arc. They made just seven of their 26 attempts in a one-point overtime win against the Bulls on Wednesday. Before that, they beat the Pelicans by five on Monday, despite making just 11 of their 35 deep balls.
Don't expect head coach Mike Malone to discourage his charges from hoisting threes after this cold spell to start the year.
"I want our players to play with confidence," Malone told Nuggets.com's Chris Dempsey. "Coaching is not just X's and O's. Coaching is relationships, communication and instilling confidence."
That approach manifested itself most clearly during Thursday's 110-91 win over the Cavs, when Juancho Hernangomez scored a team-high 23 points after getting a DNP-CD against Chicago the night before.
"It's not about me. It's not about one player. It's about the team," Hernangomez said on the postgame broadcast.
Finally, we all know Nikola Jokic is playing MVP-level offense, but don't forget about Gary Harris. He's been in double figures every game this year and has scored efficiently overall, which is hard to do when you're also mired in one of the worst perimeter shooting slumps of your career (28.1 percent on the year).
5. Utah Jazz
Last Week: 7
Rudy Gobert will never be a high-volume, go-to scorer, but the steps he's taken this season mean he's become about as effective on offense as a player with his skill set can be.
"I want to show that I'm not only a defensive star," Gobert told ESPN.com's Tim MacMahon. "I can be a star offensively, too."
While posting career highs in scoring, field-goal percentage, offensive box plus-minus and usage rate, Gobert appears to have taken a step back on D. Among players who've defended at least 50 shots within six feet, Gobert has allowed the second-highest field-goal percentage in the league. Please join me in dismissing that as a small-sample anomaly. There's no way Gobert has forgotten how to defend the rim; he'll sort this out and rank among the paint-protecting elites soon enough.
Utah has won three of its last four on the road, and its defense hasn't met expectations yet. Although, to be fair to the Jazz, there wasn't much to be done about the 50-spot Derrick Rose hung on them Wednesday. It was a tough-shot clinic, and the Jazz should be encouraged by the process, if not the results.
4. Boston Celtics
Last Week: 8
One game doesn't erase a few weeks of offensive ineptitude, but Kyrie Irving's 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting in Tuesday's 108-105 win over the Pistons had to provide some relief for the Boston Celtics. Irving cracked the 30-point mark 18 times in 60 games last year, but this was his first such contest of 2018-19.
Thursday's 117-113 win over the Bucks, which featured a franchise-record 24 made threes, extended the Celtics' winning streak to four. Irving backed up his scoring against Detroit with 28 more against Milwaukee.
Boston's defense remains the best in the league and is the main reason this team is still this high in the rankings. If the Celtics defense were merely average, we'd lump them into the pile of underachieving would-be contenders alongside Houston, OKC and Philly.
If this ranking feels too high for a club that hasn't come together yet, just know that the Warriors overwhelmingly chose the Celtics as their greatest threat when asked by Sam Amick of The Athletic. It's not always a great idea to trust peer review, but Golden State has seen enough different types of foes in its run to know what kinds of teams are threatening and which aren't.
Boston will get there, and more Irving outbursts can only help.
3. Toronto Raptors
Last Week: 2
Kawhi Leonard missed Monday's blowout loss to the Bucks, which might signal the Toronto Raptors aren't ready to green light their best player for back-to-back sets yet. With Leonard back in the lineup Tuesday, the Raps dispatched the Sixers 129-112 (though the game was effectively over at halftime).
The Raps trailed by as many as 23 points in the fourth quarter against Milwaukee on Monday, and a second period in which the Bucks took every shot from either beyond the arc or within the restricted area doesn't augur well for a Toronto defense that sits at No. 10.
The rest seemed to do Leonard good, though, as he finished the Philly win with 31 points, extended his streak of 20-point performances to six and stole the ball from Ben Simmons four times. Leonard dominated the game on both ends.
OG Anunoby, Fred VanVleet and Delon Wright have all missed time of late, so Toronto's 7-1 start is even more impressive than it may seem.
Kyle Lowry is thriving in an offense that's seeing more in-rhythm looks than it did under Dwane Casey (and with DeMar DeRozan) a year ago. After generating 12.2 potential assists last season, Lowry has that number all the way up to 18.4, which ranks second in the league.
2. Milwaukee Bucks
Last Week: 3
The last undefeated team standing after downing the Raptors (in a game both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard missed) on Monday, the Milwaukee Bucks climbed to No. 2 this week.
Yes, even after falling to Boston on Thursday.
Khris Middleton's revamped shot profile has him looking like precisely the kind of second star the Bucks need. Before this year, Middleton had never taken more than 34 percent of his shots from long range. So far, he's attempting over half of his field goals from beyond the arc. He's been deadly on the catch and even more dangerous on pull-ups. Through his first seven contests, Middleton hit 55.6 percent of his threes off the dribble.
That's unsustainable, but the broader exchange of mid-range shots for threes is working for Middleton as well as it is for the Bucks as a team.
Don't sleep on their defense, either. Brewhoop's Frank Madden noted the dramatic change in shots Milwaukee is allowing under Mike Budenholzer. Opponents' restricted-area looks are way down, and their mid-ranger frequency is up. The defensive glass, long a weakness for the Bucks, is now a strength; Milwaukee is corralling opponents' misses at a top-10 rate.
Add all that up, and you've got the Bucks' second-ranked defense.
1. Golden State Warriors
Last Week: 1
Typically, this space hosts homages to Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. When there's room, it also includes various notes on the Golden State Warriors' general historical greatness. A team in the midst of a dynasty tends to offer plenty of material.
This week, though, it's all Klay Thompson, who hit an NBA-record 14 threes in just 27 minutes of game action against the Bulls on Monday.
Reveling in the lack of defensive attention from several Bulls (Zach LaVine sure lost track of Thompson, human fireball, a lot), Golden State's previously slumping sniper hit mark after mark after mark. Needing only 56 dribbles and a total touch time of 96 seconds, according to ESPN Stats & Info, Thompson put on the most prolific long-range shooting display in league history...and he did it quickly enough to be on the bench for good with four minutes left in the third quarter.
Someday, when this run is over and the Warriors are a regular NBA team again, we'll look back at some of these records and wonder how much further out of reach they'd be if the Dubs quit building 30-point leads and resting the guys who were setting them. It's not ridiculous to say Thompson could have hit 20 threes if the game had been close enough for him to keep playing.
When your third option can erupt for 52 points after showing no signs of life for two weeks, there's a good chance you'll have the league's best offense (which the Warriors have) and rank first here for the third week in a row (which the Warriors do).
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Cleaning the Glass and Basketball Reference unless otherwise noted. Accurate through games played Thursday, Nov. 1.