Around the League: Warriors have warts

No one is suggesting the defending champion Golden State Warriors are struggling or anything — they still began play Thursday night with the best record in the NBA at 41-13 — but there might be a couple of cracks that show they might not be as invincible as some think, especially in games at the Oracle Arena, where they have been dominant.

The Warriors have lost more games at home (seven) than they have on the road (six) this season. That’s as many games as they lost at home in the two previous seasons combined. They were 36-5 at Oracle in 2016-17 and 39-2 in 2015-16.

BACK TO BACK: It took 71 games over the four seasons since he was drafted for it to happen — about the number of games a regular NBA player appears in over one season — but Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid finally played in back-to-back games.

It happened last Friday and Saturday — a Sixers win over Miami and a loss at Indiana — and Embiid played a total of about 65 minutes in the two games. SHAKEN, AND STIRRED: Sometimes, a new voice resonates greatly with NBA teams. The Milwaukee Bucks, who jettisoned coach Jason Kidd late last month when they were falling freely through the Eastern Conference standings, have gotten a big bounce under new coach Joe Prunty.

Since Kidd’s former assistant took over the team, the Bucks are 6-1 and have climbed from seventh place in the East to fifth. They were just a game out of third place going into games of Wednesday night. MILESTONE TIME: Michael Malone, son of the first head coach in Raptors history and a former assistant with Canada’s national team, reached the first milestone of his NBA coaching career this week. After being saddled with questionable talent, personalities and inexperienced ownership and front office in Sacramento, he got his 100th win as the head coach of the Denver Nuggets when they beat Oklahoma City. Doug Smith