Five years ago Brad Stevens led one of the most unbelievable runs in sports history

It's funny to look back on those back-to-back national title games for Butler University knowing what we do now about Brad Stevens.  Considering everything he's gotten out of a not particularly talented Boston Celtics ballclub the last two years (and in their history-breaking win last night, which I predicted a month ago), his unprecedented NCAA tournament success no longer seems quite so unfathomable.

From March 29, 2011: I think what Butler is doing might be the most amazing thing in the history of sports

And from April 3, 2011: Freaking Butler again!?! Not possible

While I'm on the subject, here's what I wrote about Stevens the day the Celtics hired him.  Also, from last week, Stevens sounds like he misses being a college coach sometimes.


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Warriors could post NBA's best home record ever AND best road record ever - which is more likely?

With 7 games remaining, the 68-7 Golden State Warriors are 36-0 at home and 32-7 on the road.  The best home record in NBA history is 40-1, by the 1985-86 Boston Celtics.  The top road record of all time belongs to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who went 33-8 (that club's best overall record of 72-10 looks like it's about to fall as well).

If the Warriors finishes 5-0 at home they'll be 41-0 at Oracle Arena, if they win their last two away contests they'll be 34-7 on the road.  If they run the table and get victories in all seven of their remaining games, they'll break both records (and end up a ridiculous 75-7).  I don't think that's going to happen.  Golden State will want to take it's foot off the gas pedal and rest a bit at some point before the playoffs.

In theory, winning two games on the road should be easier than five at home.  However, I'm guessing the Warriors care a lot more about being undefeated at home than they do about having the best road record in league history.  The two road contests they have left are also on back-to-back nights in Memphis and San Antonio in games No. 80 and 81--the Warriors will likely let their guard down for one of those two.

Unless the Celtics stun them in Oakland tonight, then this whole thought process goes out the window.

Crazy prediction: Celtics should've dealt Golden State its 1st loss back on 12/11. Instead, they ruin Warriors' perfect home record on 4/1.

— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) March 5, 2016

Related:
-Do the Spurs care enough about the 41-0 home record to make things difficult for the Warriors?
-The Spurs might go undefeated at home and not win the championship
-Klay Thompson will hit more 3-pointers this season than anyone besides his teammate Steph Curry ever has
-No one has ever been better at basketball than Steph Curry is right now


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Do the Spurs care enough about the 41-0 home record to make things difficult for the Warriors?

The 68-7 (.907) Golden State Warriors are more than likely about to break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' (72-10, .878) record for the best NBA regular season ever.  Amazingly, the 63-12 (.840) San Antonio Spurs are also on pace to have the fifth-best record of all time.  Think about that for a second--two of the top five seasons in the history of the league are happening at the same time.

Golden State and San Antonio will meet twice in the final five games of the year.  Obviously the two contests will be the first and second times ever that teams with such high winning percentages have squared off this late in a season.  However, we may well be robbed of a pair historically great matchups if the Spurs decide to rest guys, something Greg Popovich is notoriously famous for (the Warriors could possibly sit some players as well, but they're clearly gunning hard for 73 wins):

Spurs & Warriors play twice in last 4 games of year. SA currently 5 back of GS. Good chance Spurs will have nothing to play for either time.

— Mark Vandeusen (@LucidSportsFan) March 28, 2016

But, there is a caveat to this--both teams are currently unbeaten at home, something that's never been done before (the 1985-86 Celtics went 40-1 at the Boston Garden, 50-1 including the playoffs).  If Popovich and the Spurs care about this record, they could try their best to win at Golden State on April 7 to ruin the Warriors' perfect home season, and then again in San Antonio three days later to keep their own streak intact.

If that is the case, it might not be quite as much of a cake walk as it currently appears for the Warriors to go 5-2 and get to 73 wins.


RELATED:
-The Spurs might go undefeated at home and not win the championship
-Klay Thompson will hit more 3-pointers this season than anyone besides his teammate Steph Curry ever has
-No one has ever been better at basketball than Steph Curry is right now


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There's really going to be an Indy car race through the streets of Boston this summer

This isn't news by any means, but I feel like it's under-publicized and not that many people know about it.  The Grand Prix of Boston is actually happening five months from now.  Here's the course:

Click on the picture to enlarge.

The crazy thing to me is that turn No. 8 is underground, beneath the Westin hotel.  Imagine the worst-case scenario if some sort of massive pile-up occurs in the tunnel?  Some people around here were freaking about the possibility of the Olympics coming to town, I can't even imagine the opposition to this (and the cluster-f it's going to create in the seaport).  Well played by whoever is in charge to schedule it on Labor Day weekend though, probably the three days of the year when the most residents are out of the city.


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My very simple 'Buddy Hield as an NBA player' analysis

I picked Oklahoma to win the NCAA tournament in all of my brackets because they have the best player in the country, Buddy Hield.  I've had a "Dwyane Wade at Marquette in 2003" feeling about Hield for a while now (Wade averaged 21.8 points per game while carring his No. 3 seed Golden Eagles to the Final Four), and that's why I expect him to be an excellent NBA player.

Don't guys who dominate the NCAA tournament tend to have success on the next level?  I was going to do a bit of research into this, but ESPN's His & Hers (which fittingly used to be called Numbers Never Lie) did it for me:

Another frame of reference: Take a look back at the 2011 draft when I couldn't believe Kemba Walker dropped to ninth.


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Klay Thompson will hit more 3-pointers this season than anyone besides his teammate Steph Curry ever has

Before 2015-16 began, the all-time record for most three-pointers in an NBA season was 286, set by Steph Curry last year (he also held the previous mark, 272 in 2012-13).  Curry is shattering his record this season, having already drilled 350 threes with nine games to go.

The crazy thing is, his teammate Klay Thompson might also break the old record.  Thompson has 253 triples so far, and is averaging 3.6 per game.  He'll need to connect on roughly 3.8 treys per contest to make 34 more and finish with 287.

There's a decent chance the two most prolific three-point shooting seasons in league history might both be happening right now in the same Golden State Warriors backcourt.

Even if Thompson doesn't surpass Curry's number from last year, he's almost certain to make more threes than the "non-Curry" record--269 by Ray Allen in 2005-06.  Thompson needs slightly fewer than two per game from here on out to reach 270 and hit more three-pointers than anyone besides his legendary teammate ever has.


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Awesome Old Song of the Week: "Scenario" by A Tribe Called Quest

I'm not going to pretend to be a huge fan of A Tribe Called Quest.  In fact, I honestly didn't even know Busta Rhymes was on this track until I watched the video just now.  So while I don't feel it's my place to write about the recently departed Phife Dawg, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed Scenario in 1992.

Weird fact I learned from Wikipedia: The Barenaked Ladies took Busta's "Chickity-choco, the chocolate chicken" line (at 3:45 in the video below) and turned it into "Chickity China the Chinese chicken" in their 1998 hit One Week (at 1:30).




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