So that's what it looks like.

On Monday, in a 126-91 drubbing of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State finally unveiled what the Warriors 2.0 looks like.

It's dazzling, dangerous and capable of humiliating the best player on earth and the proud defending champions he leads.

And if you're the rest of the league, it's downright scary -- and unfair.

Stephen Curry was exactly what his team needed, especially early, finishing with 11 assists to go with 20 points. Kevin Durant scored 21, Klay Thompson 26. Draymond Green was again the most important player on the floor, touching every facet of the game with 11 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists and five blocks.

And the Cavs? They were totally and utterly outgunned. Call it just one game in January if you want, but a 35-point loss -- 35! -- against a team you loathe and that loathes you in return means something.

It's as if the Warriors team the Cavs beat on a buzzer-beater on Christmas Day had been replaced by something bigger, stronger, better.

Because it had.

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The Kevin Durant-led Warriors might be scarier than the 73-win team from last season. Getty Images

This Golden State team, still evolving into whatever it will be once Durant is fully integrated and the Warriors find a level of comfort and chemistry approaching last season's group, has only scratched the surface of how great it can be with K.D. in the mix. The Warriors had the best record in the NBA entering Monday's action, yes, but this was a signature win that underscored why this team can still go to a whole other level.

Or several other levels.

The concept of NBA teams with uber-talent needing time to find that rare, championship-caliber gear isn't new. In the first year of the Big Three in Miami, LeBron James and the Miami Heat started off a very rickety 9-8, and over those 17 games Chris Bosh cried, LeBron James lost his cool (several times), Erik Spoelstra's job was supposedly on shaky ground (a rumor complements of a disgruntled superstar) and the media sharks covering the team (including me) smelled blood in the water and lurched toward it.

And then that team figured it out and went on to an NBA Finals.

Two years ago, after LeBron returned to Cleveland, his team sat at a stunningly disappointing 19-20 on Jan. 15, nearly halfway into the season. That's the-sky-is-falling underachievement. Yet that team also eventually morphed into what it was capable of being and also went on to an NBA Finals. As with LeBron's first season in Miami, they lost, but bounced back the following season to claim a championship.

These things take time.

The Warriors have been the best team in the NBA all season but there was something missing. They have nearly lost more games than they did all of last season, and there was something absent in their game.

What we had seen from Golden State before Monday's beatdown of the Cavs was impressive, but it wasn't the level of utter domination that you would expect from a 73-win team adding arguably the best player in the NBA not named "LeBron James."

That's the scary part. They should have had some sort of first-year roadblocks, if not 19-20, something like Miami's 9-8 start in 2011. Something mortal. Not 34-6 going into a rematch against Cleveland. And so it was easy to miss that, as good as they were, they were still figuring it all out.

Well, they unveiled it Monday, against the defending champs, against LeBron, against a group that can't stand them and had won the previous four games in which they faced off.

It's time to wrap our minds around the idea that their season up to that point was just the beta mode.

And now?

Now we go forward to find out if Golden State, after all, can be better than the team last season that won 73 wins but lost to Cleveland in the NBA Finals.