NBA: Top 5 Biggest surprises from the 2015-16 Season

The impossible made possible by the Golden State Warriors

The 2015-16 NBA season featured some of the biggest surprises in recent memory. From heroes to heels, from Cinderella stories to deep busts, this season had a bit of everything.

Bookmakers in Vegas must be scratching their heads at the unpredictability of it all. Teams which were expected to tank ended up resiliently marching to the playoffs. Victory was snatched from the very jaws of defeat. Players broke the conceptions of what was regarded as feasible. In general, the unexpected happened time and time again.

Here's a look at the five most surprising story-lines from the 2015-16 season:

#1 Golden State Warriors go 73-9

The Golden State Warriors may not have won the championship, but they succeeded in accomplishing the impossible in the regular season. Bill Simmons had mentioned 10 records which will never be broken in his Book of Basketball. One of the records was the 72-10 season record of the Chicago Bulls in 1995-96 season.

That Bulls team won 18 games in a row at one point. Defense was their calling card. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin led a defense so tenacious that it was called the Doberman defense. They would not let the opponents breathe.

The Warriors made a splash with the Splash Brothers who absolutely killed it from downtown. Establishing a lethal version of small ball, the 2015-16 Warriors broke over 25 NBA records this season.

The Warriors set the tone early by storming out of the gate with 24 wins in a row, and they never let up. They faced the Memphis Grizzlies in the final game of the season to win 73 games. Stephen Curry hit 10 of 19 three-pointers in that game to score 46 points and cap off a season for the books.

There have been many teams which attempted to chase 72 wins, but for some reason or another they came up short. The closest anyone ever came to it was 69 wins by the 1972 Lakers and 1997 Bulls. The unbelievable record set by the Warriors will probably never be broken.

#2 Kobe Bryant's remarkable farewell season

Saying goodbye to a superstar

The 2015-16 season for the Lakers might as well have been named the Kobe Bryant Farewell Circus Tour. Kobe himself commissioned a camera crew to follow him around and document his final season.

Kobe Bryant was one of those players who would shake hands with you before the game, give you the Black Mamba stare, and inform you of his intention to destroy you. His final season witnessed a somewhat mushy turnaround.

Kobe spent the 2015-16 season passing the torch to the other players. After almost every game, Kobe would give his signed sneakers to a promising player on the opponent's team, along with some priceless words of advice.

Every night was a Wild West shootout with Kobe. Press crews, fans, players and coaches alike all thronged to get a piece of this living legend who would soon fade away from the league. And Kobe did not disappoint.

Never has there been such a comprehensive farewell tour in the league for any player. It would have been anti-climatic if Kobe had succumbed to his injuries. But he came out strong night after night and sent away and home crowds into a frenzy when he caught fire.

The final night of his career was as perfect a summation of his career as one could have hoped for. Shaq had challenged him to score 50 in his final game, and he ended up scoring 60 points on 50 shots. Kobe shot 22 of 50 from the field and helped the Lakers inch away to a 101-96 win. Kobe made his final four shots to seal the deal, his jumper with 31 seconds in the game serving as the exclamation mark.

Over his final season, Kobe averaged 17.6 points per game with 3.7 rebounds. He carried the league from the post-Jordan era to the unprecedented popularity it enjoys today. Suffice to say, we'll never see another such season ever again from any player.

#3 Stephen Curry changing the game

Curry is extending the field of play in basketball as we know it

In the 2014-2015 season, Stephen Curry bested his 2012-13 record for most 3 pointers made in the regular season. He hit 286 long range bombs in 14-15 season, a small improvement over his 272 3s in 12-13 season.

Curry improved his record by 14 3s in the 14-15 season. In the 2015-16 season, he went absolutely supernova and obliterated his past record by a margin of 130. Curry made a whopping 402 3s in the 15-16 season.

Records are meant to be broken by inches. That is why they are records, because they are hard to beat. Ever since the three-point line was introduced, the regular season record was pushed up by inches. It is unthinkable to shatter a record by 45%.

In 2014-15, Curry shot 3.6 of 8.1 attempts from downtown. He blew that up to 5.1 makes on 11.2 attempts. He almost out-shot entire teams by himself from downtown. What's amazing is that he shot 45.4% from downtown.

It is tempting to say that we will never see such a season ever again. But it is a safe bet that Curry will surpass his record yet again. His quick release off the dribble from anywhere beyond the half court line makes it a foregone conclusion that Curry is going to change how the world sees the 3 pointer.

Numbers don't reflect the audacity and shock of his makes. Here's a look at some of his best shots from the season:

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#4 Cleveland Cavaliers writing history

The Cavaliers climbed out of a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals

The Cleveland Cavaliers faced tremendous pressure to win and win now. It would be hard to figure who faced more pressure, the Cavaliers or LeBron James. Having lost in the Finals last year, they could not afford consecutive defeats if they wanted to hold on to LeBron James for long.

The Cavaliers faced a relatively easy road to the NBA Finals. They swept the first two rounds against the Pistons and Hawks. In the Conference Finals, the Raptors only took 2 games before being eliminated. The Cavs were supposed to be well rested and ready to pounce on the Warriors who were coming off a 7 game series with the Thunder.

Instead, they found themselves down 3-1, facing a hole which no team had ever climbed out of in the NBA Finals. What happened over the next three games was nothing short of amazing.

The Cavs wrestled away Game 5 112-97 on the backs of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving as they both scored 41 points each. James nearly had a triple double with 16 rebounds and 7 assists as he helped keep the Cavs' hopes alive by sheer force of will. In Game 6, LeBron would not let the story end. His 41 points propelled the Cavs to a 115-101 lead.

Game 7 of the NBA Finals was a nail-biter. LeBron James' block on Andre Iguodala in the final few minutes was the signature play of the Finals. His 27 points and 11 assists ensured that the Cavs had a fighting chance. An off the dribble three-pointer by Kyrie Irving with a minute left in the game helped the Cavs pull away with the NBA Championship.

Never has a title which was seemingly lost, wrested back in such a gritty fashion. We probably will never again see another superhuman effort like LeBron's on the highest stage of the game.

#5 Teams written off which pleasantly surprised

The Blazers were not expected to even be competitive

No other team was so thoroughly decimated in the postseason as the Portland Trailblazers. They lost four of their starters in the offseason as LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, Nicholas Batum and Weasley Matthews all went off.

This was supposed to be the season the Blazers tooled around for a rebuild. They certainly had every excuse to do so. No team wants to be stuck in the no man's land of being good, but not good enough. The manner in which the Blazers managed to bounce back has been nothing short of amazing

Powered by one of the most explosive back-courts in the league, the Blazers fought their way to the playoffs and made it all the way to the Conference semi-finals before falling to the Warriors.

Damian Lillard established himself as the most dangerous point guard from downtown not named Stephen Curry. He averaged 25.1 points per game with 6.8 assists and 3.8 rebounds. His running mate CJ McCollum won the Most Improved Player of the year award as he averaged 20.8 points per game with 4.3 assists.

The other team which surpassed expectations was the Dallas Mavericks.

The Dallas Mavericks were supposed to tank. At least that's what Mark Cuban proclaimed when he thought he had acquired DeAndre Jordan in the offseason. Instead, the Mavericks fought their way to the 6th place in the bloody Western Conference. The combination of Rick Carlisle’s adroit coaching and Dirk Nowitzki’s refusal to decline with age helped the Mavericks be competitive night in and night out.

When an owner like Mark Cuban admits that your season was supposed to be a lost cause, and you make it to 6th spot in the Western Conference, you know that you’ve achieved the near impossible.

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Edited by Staff Editor