Start with NBA champion Golden State. Stars Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson missed 104 regular-season games, but big-time help from Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole got the Warriors 53 wins and then 16 more in the post-season. They did not need seven games in any series to eliminate Denver, with repeat MVP Nikola Jokic, then 56-win Memphis, with emerging triple-threat star Ja Morant, then Dallas and Boston with dynamic scorers/first-team NBA stars Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum.

In a season with eight 50-win teams, all reached the conference semi-finals. In a season when teams averaged 110 points, the finalists were Boston, No. 1 in defense (with defensive player of the year Marcus Smart) and Golden State, No. 3 in D.

Some things haven’t changed: Golden State claimed its fourth NBA championship and sixth Finals appearance in the last eight years. LeBron James averaged 30 points, Curry made the most 3-pointers, Chris Paul led the NBA in assists, Joel Embiid dominated and Jokic repeated as MVP with even better numbers – 27.1 ppg, 13.8 rpg, 7.9 apg.

But stars were everywhere. Big-time scorer Devin Booker, No.1 playmaker Paul, inside force Deandre Ayton and versatile Mikal Bridges made Phoenix the class of the NBA regular season (64-18, just three years after the Suns were a worst-in-the-West 19-63).

Embiid (30.6 ppg, 11.7 rpg), Milwaukee’s Giannis Antekokounmpo (29.9 ppg, 11.6 rpg), Doncic (28.4 ppg), Atlanta’s Trae Young (28.4 ppg), Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan (27.9 ppg), Morant (27.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 6.7 apg), Tatum (26.9 ppg), Booker (26.8 ppg), Utah’s Donovan Mitchell (25.9 ppg) and Curry (25.5 ppg) all topped 25 points per game (James, at 30.3 ppg in only 56 games, did not play enough to qualify for the scoring title).

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