The No.1 Anti-Fans in Basketball
Chapter 637 - 309: 2015-2016 Season Ends

Chapter 637: Chapter 309: 2015-2016 Season Ends

The season was left with just one month until its conclusion, and the patterns in both the East and the West had basically clarified.

This year, apart from the Warriors, Lakers, and Spurs, the strength of the other teams in the West was obviously declining.

This phenomenon wasn’t accidental but a sequela of Nike’s strategic arrangements.

The League has a limited number of superstars when you concentrate them in specific teams, it inevitably leads to a decline in competitiveness for other teams.

This was why many team owners had strongly opposed when the Heat formed The Big Three at their peak.

Just like there once was a time when East University had many who would help fallen elderly ladies, until Judge Wang struck his hammer, and everything changed.

Some things, although not against the rules, break certain underlying principles.

However, the situation in the East was the most intense it had been in years.

The Raptors and Hornets had played their best seasons in history, coupled with the rebuilt Celtics, and the Pacers who welcomed back George this season, this might be one of the few years where the overall competitiveness of the East had surpassed the West.

On the Cavaliers’ side, since the top three spots in the East were almost fixed, Malone had been comfortably leveling up Jokic, creating a feeling as if there was a storm outside, but inside it was peaceful and sunny.

However, in this process, Jokic also exposed another issue besides defense: stamina.

For a big player, stamina is a huge challenge because whether moving or performing actions on the field, their energy expenditure is greater than that of other players.

Just like Yao Ming often faced stamina issues by the third quarter in his days.

Not to mention that Jokic was still a rookie and he had a long way to go before his stamina capacity could be increased.

Thus, even though Jokic started, his playtime was essentially just 27 or 28 minutes, any longer and his performance would visibly decline.

But for the current Cavaliers team, that was already completely sufficient, because with Hansen and Irving, they didn’t need Jokic to take on too much responsibility.

As time moved into early April, the season was about to come to its conclusion.

Most of the playoff teams had begun to rest their main players, starting to prepare for the upcoming playoffs.

Of course, some teams were exceptions, such as the Hawks, Hornets, and Pacers in the East due to having the same records, all striving to surpass each other.

This was not merely an issue of records but about who would fall behind and might have to face the Cavaliers in the first round.

Although the Cavaliers were not predicted to be as strong as the Warriors, Lakers, or Heat by the external circles towards the end of the season, no one wanted to face Hansen in the first round of the playoffs.

Avoiding the league’s top player Hansen, was like nobody during Jordan’s peak would voluntarily join him, not only because they wanted to save their last shred of dignity, but that didn’t mean they weren’t intimidated by Hansen.

Although it had only been a season since Hansen returned to the East, his playoff performance last season was already deeply engraved in their minds.

Meanwhile, in the West, another team was also giving their all.

Of course, they weren’t doing this for a better ranking, but for that historical record.

In a flash, the curtain fell on the 2015-2016 season.

At the moment the season ended, all NBA fans were incredibly excited, because after defeating the Grizzlies in the final game, the Warriors’ record successfully reached 73 wins and 9 losses!

This meant that the Bulls’ record of 72 wins set in the 1995-1996 season was broken.

The historically remarkable Heat team four years ago didn’t manage to do that, the Warriors did!

"Now we can announce the 2015-2016 season’s champion is the Warriors!"

Fans had already started popping champagne for the Warriors in advance.

The Warriors, with their 73 wins, dominated the League, while another team that drew significant attention, the Lakers, ended with a record of 67 wins.

Although worse than the Warriors, this record ranked second in Lakers’ history.

Even more surprisingly was the Spurs, who achieved 66 wins, breaking their record for the best regular season performance.

The occurrence of three teams obtaining 65+ wins in the same conference also created new NBA history.

Naturally, this also meant that other teams in the West wouldn’t have as many wins.

The fourth-placed Thunders had only 51 wins.

And the Rockets, ranked fifth, had directly dropped to 45 wins.

The sixth-placed Grizzlies had 44 wins.

The seventh-placed Blazers had 43 wins.

And the eighth-placed Mavericks had just 41 wins, barely crossing the 50% winning mark.

Compared to that, the rankings on the East side this year had quite a "Western" flavor.

The first-placed Heat had a record of 63 wins.

It’s worth mentioning that this was their fourth consecutive season reaching 60+ wins, making them the second team to accomplish this after the 1984-1988 Lakers.

However, the Lakers had won three championships during that period, while the Heat only managed to get runners-up.

The Cavaliers ranked second with 58 wins.

The Cavaliers’ final record was the same as last season, but their harvest this season was clearly greater than last year’s.

Compared to last year, where Hansen won the Scoring King, Assists King, and Steals King, this year, because he was letting other players take more ball-handling responsibilities, his stats shrank considerably.

He averaged only 30 points, 6.7 rebounds, 7.1 assists, 2.7 steals, 1.5 blocks per game, with a 51.8% shooting accuracy, and a 41.5% three-point shooting rate.

Irving played the best season of his career, averaging 23.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 6.8 assists, with a shooting accuracy of 47.3%, and a three-point accuracy of 40.1%.

Another player worth noting was Jokic, who in his rookie season managed to average 11.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, with a shooting accuracy of 51.2%, and a three-point accuracy of 34.8%.