Last year, the Golden State Warriors capped a 67-win season in which they finished second in the league in offensive efficiency, first in defensive efficiency, and with top-10 all-time marks in both average margin of victory and Simple Rating System, by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the NBA championship.
For an encore, this year the Warriors authored a 73-win season, the highest regular-season total ever, in which they finished first in offensive efficiency, fifth in defensive efficiency, and with top-six marks in margin of victory and SRS. After Sunday's Game 2 bludgeoning, they now sit two wins away from beating the Cavs to win the NBA championship.
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We're witnessing one of the truly special runs in NBA history and, as such, as they have all season, people are trying to figure out where this Warriors team fits in the broader context of the all-time great teams in the league's annals. As far as All-Star shooting guard Klay Thompson is concerned, they're definitely superior to one of those legendary squads.


After the Dubs choked Cleveland out to the tune of 77 points on 35.4 percent shooting — the Cavs' second-lowest point total of the season, and the franchise's lowest in a playoff game in eight years — Warriors star forward Draymond Green fielded a question about whether Golden State's defensive performance "solidifies you guys as one of the best teams of all time." In a 180-degree reversal of their typical public personalities, Draymond demurred, while Klay cracked wise.
"No, we've got two more wins before you can even consider saying that," said Green, who turned in a brilliant performance with 28 points (11-for-20 shooting, 5-for-8 from 3) to go with seven rebounds, five assists and a steal in 34 minutes. "I don't really look at are you the best team of all time, are we the best team of all time? Because I think it's all subjective. To say we're better than the Showtime Lakers, how can you say that? We never played them."
At that, Klay pulled up and fired a long-range shot.
"We were better than the Showtime Lakers," said a smiling Thompson, who chipped in 17 points (6-for-13 shooting, 4-for-8 from deep), five assists, two rebounds and two steals in 31 1/2 minutes.
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Well, if anyone would know, it's Klay. After all, he got a pretty good look at Showtime while his dad, former No. 1 overall draft pick Mychal Thompson, was running and gunning with Magic and the gang from 1987 through 1991, joining the Lakers for four 57-plus-win seasons, three NBA Finals runs and two championships.
After drafting Magic Johnson in 1979, the Lakers went to nine Finals in 12 years, winning five championships with an exciting, uptempo, fast-breaking, ball-sharing style that came to be known as "Showtime," and that will always rank at or near the top of many hoop lovers' minds when it's time to list the most attractive, freewheeling and flat-out fun brands of basketball ever to hit the NBA hardwood. We're a ways away from Golden State establishing the kind of generational dominance that those Lakers, or the 1960s Boston Celtics, or the 1990s Chicago Bulls managed; as Green noted, we're still two wins away from the Warriors repeating, nevermind three-peating or going even further ... but that doesn't mean that a son can't bust his father's chops on national TV, now does it?
Sure, Mychal's old teammates might disagree with his boy. When you watch the Warriors at their free-flowing, ball- and player-moving peak, though, you can start to see strains of Showtime ... or, at least, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar can, as he told NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper back in December:
"I see certain similarities between the Warriors and the Showtime Lakers in their embrace of teamwork," Abdul-Jabbar said. "Teamwork is what really makes this game function and they are consummate team players. I saw an article on them in the New York Times and it compared them to the Count Basie band. I kind of enjoyed that a lot because Count Basie's band was a big band in my household (growing up) and I understand what they're talking about. They're exciting. They just seemed to come out of nowhere. But they make you smile and make you want to dance. I think along with the Showtime Lakers, they're making a little bit homage to Count Basie. I like that."
As everybody laughed along with Klay's gag, Draymond continued his answer.
"Like, saying we're better than the [72-win] Bulls — it's like, we'll never play them," he said. "It's two completely different eras. So I don't really get off into the 'are you the best team of all times?' [question.] I'm trying to win rings, and that's the only goal. Everybody else can decide what they want to decide on who is the best team of all time, who is not. We've got to win two more games, and they'll be the hardest two wins of this entire season. So that's my focus."
A mature, measured answer ... not like that hothead Thompson over there. And to think, it was just last month that Klay was telling reporters about how he didn't care for the spotlight and the punchline nearly as much as dear ol' Dad. From Janie McCauley of The Associated Press:

“We’re different because he loves to talk. He loves to talk trash, he loves the camera and the limelight,” the two-time all-star son said of his dad. “That might be from playing with the Showtime (Lakers) for a while or growing up in the Bahamas. I didn’t get that gene from him, but I’m getting better at it.”
Clearly.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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