The Warriors are back to being great, plus who’s the favorite to win the Super Bowl?

Blissful Thursday, sports activities followers. Wednesday was a busy evening within the NBA, and we’ve a loaded schedule tonight with essential matchups within the NFL, NBA and school soccer.

Let’s get to it.

Good morning to everybody however particularly to…

THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS AND THEIR SUPER AWESOME ROLE PLAYERS

The overall consensus surrounding the Warriors coming into this season was “They need to be stable, but it surely all hinges on Klay Thompson’s return.”

Whether or not they heard these feedback or not, they’re proving them incorrect. After beating Minnesota final evening, Golden State is 10-1 this season, the very best document within the NBA. Stephen Curry is the early frontrunner for MVP, writes NBA professional Brad Botkin in this week’s Star Power Index:

• Botkin: “For my cash, (Kevin) Durant has been the league’s finest participant to this point, however Curry’s impression … as regular, extends to this point past his personal conventional numbers (that are once more terrific) that Golden State’s success is disproportionately attributed to his presence and thus has him within the early MVP driver’s seat.”

It is not simply Curry who has been excellent, although. Jordan Poole is making a giant leap in his third 12 months, leaping up from 12 PPG final season to 17.8. And talking of leaps, have you ever watched Gary Payton II defy gravity? If you have not, watch these dunks from last night. And even when you have seen them, go watch them once more.

The Warriors lead the league in defensive ranking and are top-three in offensive ranking. They are going to ultimately get again a traditionally good offensive participant who can also be a terrific defender (some man named Klay Thompson). Welcome to the great morning membership, Warriors. I’ve a sense this is not the final time you will be right here.

Honorable mentions:

The newest NFL playoff projections are in 🏈

When when the Ravens and Dolphins face off tonight in Miami, it’ll formally open the second half of the 2021 NFL common season. By means of 9 weeks, there have been loads of surprises (hiya, Jaguars beating the Payments this previous weekend), breakout stars (come on down, Cooper Kupp), and, as is the case each season, loads of drama (Odell Beckham Jr. nonetheless hasn’t signed with a group, and he might not for a while!).

Basically, although, we all know who’s wanting good for postseason berths. This is what the playoffs will seem like, in accordance with the latest projections from SportsLine.com’s Stephen Oh:

AFC

• 1. Titans
• 2. Payments
• 3. Ravens
• 4. Chargers
• 5. Steelers
• 6. Patriots
• 7. Raiders

NFC

• 1. Cardinals
• 2. Buccaneers
• 3. Packers
• 4. Cowboys
• 5. Rams
• 6. Saints
• 7. Vikings

Who’s the favourite to win all of it? It might shock you, writes NFL professional John Breech:

• Breech: “The Payments won’t be projected to get the highest seed within the AFC, however the laptop nonetheless appears to love them probably the most on this convention. In keeping with SportsLine, the Payments have a 15.71% probability of profitable the Super Bowl this 12 months, which is not simply the best quantity within the AFC, but it surely’s additionally the best within the NFL, which suggests the pc views the Payments as the present Tremendous Bowl favourite.”

One query every MLB group has to reply this offseason ⚾

Irrespective of how good (or dangerous) any group is, the MLB offseason is all the time filled with questions. Who do you retain round? Who do you let go of? What are your strengths? Your weaknesses? Are you constructing a championship contender, or are you constructing from the bottom up? Someplace in between?

 MLB expert Mike Axisa has the biggest offseason question for every organizations, together with…

• The World Sequence-champion Braves: “Will they re-sign (Freddie) Freeman? — “I might wager the farm on the reply being ‘sure,’ although St. Louis as soon as let Albert Pujols stroll proper after a World Sequence win, so we will not etch it in stone. Because the Braves went by way of their rebuild within the mid-2010s, Freddie Freeman was the one core participant they refused to commerce and as an alternative constructed round, so it was becoming he recorded the ultimate put out within the World Sequence clinching Recreation 6. Freeman turned 32 in September and decline years are coming, however he is additionally in ‘retired quantity’ territory for the Braves, and has constructed most of a robust Corridor of Fame case.”
  

• The star-studded Yankees: “How will they deal with shortstop? — “The Yankees pulled the plug on Gleyber Torres at shortstop in August and can now look to fill the place this winter. Opening the pockets and spending on Carlos Correa or Corey Seager can be the best, most Yankee-like transfer. They want a shortstop and there are two 27-year-old franchise shortstops sitting in free company, so signal one.”
  

• Caesars Sportsbook’s early 2022 World Series favorite Dodgers: “What occurs with all their free brokers? — There’s an opportunity the Dodgers will look very completely different when spring coaching rolls round in a couple of months. Kenley Jansen, Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager and Chris Taylor are all free brokers after serving as cornerstone gamers the final six-plus years, and different short-term Dodgers like Corey Knebel and Max Scherzer are free brokers as effectively.“

In fact one one that may have a giant say in what occurs is not a participant, coach or member of any MLB group. Scott Boras, the agent who represents free brokers Max Scherzer, Nick Castellanos and Corey Seager amongst dozens of different purchasers, mentioned on the annual GM conferences on Wednesday that MLB has a “actual most cancers” with groups not making an attempt to win titles and “17 (teams) at most” are trying to compete.

Nonetheless, probably the most urgent concern is that there’s an opportunity nobody is competing for a title subsequent 12 months — or at the least not below regular circumstances. MLB gamers and house owners are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement and seem unlikely to conform to phrases earlier than the present CBA expires Dec. 1.

A lockout might be on the horizon. Do not say I did not warn ya…

Odds and ends

Smartest thing I noticed on the web 🔥

I am a LeBron James fan. I’ve loved watching him regardless of the place he is performed, and I feel he does a ton of actually nice stuff off the courtroom, too. I am going to defend him in any GOAT argument. So I can solely think about what Duke freshman Paolo Banchero felt like when LeBron gave him a shout-out on Instagram on Wednesday, hours after Banchero dominated in Tuesday night’s win over Kentucky. 

Nicely, truly I haven’t got to think about, as a result of Banchero reacted like most of us would, tweeting in part “no method bron put me on tha story man.” James debuted a couple of days earlier than Banchero’s first birthday and subsequent 12 months the 2 will doubtless face off within the NBA (Banchero is No. 1 in Kyle Boone’s 2022 NBA mock draft). That may certainly be one other magical second for Duke’s freshman star.

What we’re watching on Thursday 

🏈 UNC at No. 25 Pittsburgh (-6.5), 7:30 p.m. on ESPN | Pitt leads the ACC Coastal by a half-game over Virginia. UNC is coming off a win over No. 13 Wake Forest.
🏈 Ravens (-7.5) at Dolphins, 8:20 p.m. on FOX & NFL Community | In the event you’re seeking to sprinkle some cash right here, the Ravens are 9-0 ATS in opposition to the Dolphins below John Harbaugh. That’s… uh…. fairly good.
🏀 Heat at Clippers, 10:30 p.m. on NBA.TV | Miami is on the second half of an LA back-to-back and can attempt to decelerate Paul George, who has began this season sturdy.