If you're sleeping on the Golden State Warriors, it's time to wake up.

This isn't your typical Golden State team -- the one trying to score like mad without caring whether the other team does the same. As fellow ESPN.com scribe Ethan Sherwood Strauss pointed out last week, the Warriors haven't ranked better than 10th in defensive rating in more than 30 years. If you think it's absolutely nuts that Stephen Curry could be the face of a defensive-minded team, I understand your skepticism.

But this is a new era in Golden State. For the first time in almost half a century, the Warriors are stifling opponents on that end of the floor. Just four teams so far have held opponents to fewer points per possession than the Warriors. Yes, the Golden State Warriors.

In reality, the Warriors have probably played the best ball of any team in the early going.