After another exciting week of NBA basketball is here, and these are the top three headlines that the league has to offer. 

The Golden State Warriors are the best team in the league, with stars missing

The Golden State Warriors have the best record in the league with a record of 12-2. They are doing this by having one of the best offenses in the league as well as one of the top defenses. They seem almost impossible to beat at this point in time, and they don’t even have their second-best player Klay Thompson and young starting center in James Wiseman. 

The Warriors are following three-time champion and two-time MVP Stephen Curry’s lead thus far into the season he is on pace to win his third most valuable player award. He is seen as the best player in the league right now, and the rest of the team seems to feed off his energy. This team was not seen as a major Championship contender coming into this season, but they are now. 

The Los Angeles Lakers are not who we thought they were 

Granted, the Lakers have been missing their biggest star in Lebron James due to an abdominal strain for the past stretch of games. That doesn’t excuse how bad they have been, though. They still have two other superstars in Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis, with an abundance of role players. That is where the problem is because this team is a championship contender losing to teams that, without a doubt, they should beat. 

Half of their losses have been by double digits. While three of their eight losses have been to teams with a losing record, with one of them coming in blowout fashion losing by 24. They are ranked 28th defensively and are struggling for stretches in games on offense. Lebron will be a huge difference for this team without a doubt, but trying to make up for all of the flaws this team has is going to be tough. 

How well will the Bulls be able to play without Nikola Vucevic

The Chicago Bulls will be without star center Nikola Vucevic for the time being as he tested positive for COVID-19 and has to sit out for a minimum 10 days. This will be a big test for the Bulls because one of their biggest flaws, while Vucevic was still even playing, was their lack of size in the frontcourt. With their star center being out now, that creates even more of a problem. It will be interesting to see the adjustments that head coach Billy Donovan makes for the rotation in the frontcourt to minimize this blow to the team.