The NBA season kicked off and the standings don’t look quite as expected.  The greatest early overachiever is Golden State, which entered the season with a projection of 48.5 wins, according to Basketball Reference’s archive of Vegas odds. Typically, over a full season Vegas odds are pretty good indicators of team quality.

Two teams that were projected to finish with losing records have also started the season hot and made similar progression. The Wizards are 7-3 in comparison with an over/under of 33.5 wins or 4.1 wins in 10 games. And the Cavaliers, who entered the season with the fourth-lowest over/under total in the league with 26.5, or 3.2 wins in 10 games, have started 6-4 now 7-4 basically double the expectation. 

The defending champs who continue to be without Khris Middleton following his positive Covid diagnosis last week go on to lose five of their past six games. Yet it looks like Golden State just keeps on moving forward as they won four in a row. Draymond Green exited early as he suffered from a right thigh contusion. Miami pulled off a win over the Jazz on Saturday night as Tyler Herro and Jimmy Butler combined for 56 points. Jimmy Butler played only one quarter Wednesday night before he sprained his right ankle.  As the season goes on the rankings may or may not change dramatically, with some of these big players out these teams will struggle to win games moving forward until the players are healthy again. This concludes this week’s main events in the NBA, making basketball a great sport to watch and follow because it is anyone’s game.