Why the perfect Warriors are the perfect team

The Golden State Warriors are going to lose a basketball game eventually, and probably soon. The basic laws of sports and an 82-game season ensure that's all but certain.

But then you watch this team toy with rivals for 48 minutes at a time, swinging the ball from side to side and inside-out while Stephen Curry puts on a breathtaking display of shooting brilliance, and you legitimately allow yourself to wonder whether they'll ever fall again.

They've won 106 of their last 126 games, are off to the best start in NBA history at 23-0, and are outscoring opponents by an average of over 16 points per 100 possessions. To put that in perspective, the gap between Golden State's No. 1 net rating (+16.3) and Oklahoma City's third-ranked rating (+7.6) is roughly equivalent to the gap between OKC and the 19th-ranked Suns.

Even elite teams, in a season of balance and parity, are cannon fodder for the defending champions.

You wouldn't know it, though, watching them defend with relentless vigor on a third-quarter possession Tuesday against the Indiana Pacers, despite nursing a 30-point lead. And that's the thing with these Warriors - despite the championship, the unprecedented dominance, and the arrogance that justifiably comes with it - they don't seem to be taking any of it for granted.

"There's kind of a feeling of invincibility, but at the same time we have a coaching staff that makes us realize that you have to feed into (that feeling) with hard work," center Festus Ezeli said Saturday before the Warriors' victory over the Toronto Raptors.

"It's not something that just stays there. You earn it every night. Everybody comes for you. It's not realistic to feel invincible when you have to work hard and add to it every day."

For a team that hasn't tasted defeat in six months, the Warriors work as if they've already had their fair share of it and are sickened by the very thought.

Interim head coach Luke Walton believes Golden State's historic start is fueling that early season focus.

"I think it's part of the reason we haven't had a letdown yet," Walton said during his pregame scrum at Air Canada Centre. "They don't want the streak to end. They know that we're going to get every team's best shot, and if they're not ready to play, we're going to be in trouble."

The seamless transition to Walton from Steve Kerr, who's recovering from offseason back surgery, is thanks in part to Kerr's willingness to include his assistants in the decision-making progress, according to Andrew Bogut.

"This isn't a team where Steve Kerr barked orders every day and assistants weren't allowed to talk unless they're asked a question," said Bogut, who has played in such systems pre-Kerr. "This is 'if you see something, address it, give feedback.'"

The perfect example was Kerr listening to the advice of staffer Nick U'Ren during June's NBA Finals and making the series-turning decision to start Andre Iguodala.

The perfect team

From Curry's efficiency, which he came into the season looking to improve upon, despite his already transcendent metrics, to the team's two-way play, the Warriors have been better than last season's championship squad in almost every facet.

After finishing in the top-two in both offense and defense last year, the Warriors have maintained a top-five defense while running the best ever offense relative to league average this year.

If last season felt like a year-long campaign convincing the average fan that the Warriors were for real, the first quarter of 2015-16 has been more like a coronation for the Warriors as one of the greatest teams ever assembled, full stop.

In many ways, Bob Myers, Jerry West, and Co. have built the perfect team for the modern era, with shooting and defensive versatility at almost every position, complete with the perfect mix of ball movement, off-ball movement, pacing, and spacing.

While Curry is the team's engine and the NBA's unequivocal MVP, it's Draymond Green - a 6-foot-7 point-forward who can defend all five positions - who embodies that versatility like none other.

"There's a lot of teams that are trying to match our strengths and our lineups that we throw out there," Curry said when asked if the Warriors have a sense of how they're revolutionizing the game.

"But at the end of the day, not every team can do it. You have to have the right personnel. The way that Draymond can affect the game offensively at the five, but then not give up a lot on the defensive end. That's our strength."

The numbers back him up, as the five-man unit of Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, and Iguodala, with Green playing center, has a net rating of +69.9 in 64 minutes together. The league's No. 2 lineup of those who've played at least 60 minutes together is +35.4.

"More often than not, when we throw that lineup out there, space shooters around me and Draymond playing pick-and-roll, or setting screens for players or what have you, it's going to be tough for teams to match up with it, as much as they want to try to do it themselves," Curry said.

The key to this historic run, of course, is the otherworldly play of Curry himself, as he looks to join LeBron James, Steve Nash, and Tim Duncan as the only back-to-back MVP winners in the last 24 years.

"Just the way he makes it look so easy, It seems like he gets 40 points quietly," All-Star backcourt mate Thompson said of Curry, minutes after the reigning MVP dropped 44 on the Raptors. "The times I've got got 40 in the NBA, I've been very happy with it, but he just seems to not be content. He's a truly special talent that you might never see again."

Truly special, not content, something we may never see again - Thompson's description of Curry may well be a depiction of the Warriors as a whole.