2015-16 NBA Season Recap |NBA FastBreak Blog

The 2015-16 NBA season began with the Cleveland Cavaliers as the favourites to win the title. However Stephen Curry returned in the new season even better than in his last, and has a chance at becoming the first unanimous regular season MVP in NBA history. No one expected that the Warriors would be able to repeat as champions. However it quickly became apparent that not only would the Warriors become the heavy favourites to win it all, but they would also have the chance to break NBA history for most wins in a regular season. With one game left in the season, they are currently tied with the Chicago Bulls 72-10 record, a record that was set 20 years ago by the 95-96 Bulls led by Jordan on his way to his 4th championship. Golden State's coach Steve Kerr has a chance at breaking the record, which is ironic as he also played as a player on the 72-10 Bull's team.

The San Antonio Spurs with their veteran big 3 have also seen the addition of Lamarcus Aldridge and the emergence of Kawhi Leonard see them quietly amass a 66-15 record, including an NBA-tying 40-1 record at home. OKC has the #3 seed, anchored by Durant and Westbrook - Durant has scored 20pts in his last 64 games in a row, and Westbrook has racked up 17 triple doubles in the season which is tied for the NBA record. The Clippers hold the #4 seed and despite their leading scoring Blake Griffin being out for 29 games due to injury, were still able to go 22-7 without him. The Houston Rockets were once considered to be on their way to being contenders, but are only barely holding onto the West's 8th playoff seed. The LA Lakers ended up at the bottom of the western conference, and both the team's and Kobe's early struggles forced Kobe to decide that this season would be his last. Kobe's final game will be at home versus the Utah Jazz, with ticket prices ranging from $888 to $25,700 USD. In the East, the Toronto Raptors are only 2 games behind Cleveland for the 2nd seed, with the Miami Heat who are still trying to rebuild their team after the loss of James holding onto the 3rd seed. The Chicago Bulls were eliminated from the playoff picture after being touted as potential champion contenders.

One of the games of the year was on Feb 27 when OKC hosted the Warriors. The Warriors came into the game with the best 58-game record in NBA history at 53-5, as every other NBA team tried their best to slow them down. OKC had an 11pt lead with 4:37 left in the 4th quarter, but Golden State was able to pull within 1pt in the final minute. OKC's Kevin Durant was able to hit what seemed to be a dagger 3-pter with 14.5sec left, giving them a 4pt lead. Golden State's Klay Thompson was able to score on a quick 2, but rather than fouling OKC on the next possession they instead cornered Durant in the corner with a double-team. Durant escaped the double-team by lobbing the ball over to the other side of the court, but the pass was intercepted by Klay Thompson who passed it to Andre Iguodala, who pump faked and drew the foul with 0.7sec remaining. Down by 2, Iguodala - a 62% free throw shooter for the season, calmly knocked down both free throws to tie the game and force overtime. In overtime, the Thunder got an early lead but Durant fouled out and the Warriors were able to tie the game up. With 8.4sec left, Westbrook missed a 14-foot bank shot and Iguodala grabbed the rebound and threw it to Curry. With 6sec left, Golden State didn't call a timeout and the Thunder backpedalled into defensive position. Curry dribbled the ball up the court and then... (watch video below)

... took 3 steps past the half-court line and launched the game-winning 3 with 0.6 sec remaining! The shot tied the NBA's record of 12 3-pters made in a game, and Curry ended up scoring 46. The gamewinner gave Curry his 288th 3-pter of the season, a new NBA record.

Stephen Curry: Warmup Shots (35sec):