A 45-win season two years after the rebuild bottomed out, built on a point guard playing at an All-NBA level.
The margin for error at this stage of the season is razor thin, and both benches knew it. Every possession in the fourth quarter was contested like a playoff closeout, with coaches burning timeouts early to stop runs before they became avalanches.
The advanced numbers tell the same story from a different angle. Since the calendar turned, the lineup’s net rating has climbed into the league’s top five, driven almost entirely by transition defense and a sharp cut in turnovers.
Scouts who have tracked this draft class since last summer keep coming back to the same word: physicality. The lottery names carry NBA frames already, and the workout circuit is only sharpening the separation at the top of the board.
