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Getting out of the blocks fast usually leads to a winning NBA season. A team that builds early momentum gets plenty of confidence as the season progresses. Most of the teams who are off to a good start end up getting good playoff positions. Some of them go all the way and win the NBA title.
In the history of the NBA, some teams won at least 10 straight games before suffering their first loss of the year. In this article, we listed down the teams which had the longest winning streaks to start an NBA season. Read on.
1972-73 Boston Celtics
Tom Heinsohn won 8 NBA titles as a player and two as a head coach for the Boston Celtics. Overall, he was part of 17 championships while holding an official position with the team. In 1972-73, Heinsohn was head coach of the team. He led them to a 10-0 start with Dave Cowens, John Havlicek, and JoJo White. They would finish the record with a 68-14 record but their season came to an end when they lost to the New York Knicks in Game 7 of the 1973 Eastern Conference Finals
1993-94 Seattle SuperSonics
This Seattle team started 10-0 and opened with a 16-1 record but they will be remembered as the first #1 seed to lose to an 8th seed in the first round of the playoffs. Gary Payton and the Sonics finished with a 63-19 record and they faced the Denver Nuggets in round one. Seattle won the first two games of the best of five series but the Nuggets roared back to win the next three games to produce the massive upset.
2000-01 Philadelphia 76ers
Allen Iverson was the star of the Sixers and Larry Brown was their head coach. The team won their first ten games before getting blown out by the Charlotte Hornets in 88-73, in their 11th game of the season. Iverson would go on to win All-Star Game MVP and NBA MVP while the Sixers went all the way to the 2001 NBA Finals where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 4-1.
1990-91 Portland Trail Blazers
Behind Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, the 1991 Portland Trail Blazers raced to an 11-0 start before suffering their first loss of the season, a 14-point beating at the hands of the Phoenix Suns. After tasting defeat, they racked up eight straight wins for a 19-1 start. It helped that they played 12 of their first 19 games at home but this team was really good. They made it to the Western Conference Finals where Rick Adelman’s boys lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.
1997-98 Los Angeles Lakers
Before the Zen Master arrived in Los Angeles, Dell Harris was the head coach of the Lakers. Harris had the privilege of coaching Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and in 1997-98, the Purple and Gold raced to an 11-0 start. But O’Neal got hurt and the Lakers went 13-7 without their big man. However, they finished the season strong with only three losses in their last 25 games to finish with a 61-21 record. They were swept by the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Finals.
1964-65 Boston Celtics
Boston had lost some of their stars from the 1958 season but this team still had future Hall of Famers Bill Russell, Sam Jones, Tom Heinsohn, John Havlicek, and K.C. Jones. They raced to an 11-0 start before dropping a one-point contest to the Philadelphia 76ers at Madison Square Garden. In case you’re wondering why they played the Sixers at the Garden, well it was because they had double-headers during this period. Anyway, the Celtics finished the season at 61-21 and won their 8th title by knocking off the Lakers in the Finals.
1997-98 Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks had Steve Smith who averaged 20.1 points per game and Dikembe Mutombo who put up a double-double season. With Lenny Wilkens as their head coach, the team won their first 11 games before losing at home to the New York Knicks. The Hawks finished the season with a 51-31 record but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Charlotte Hornets.
1982-83 Seattle SuperSonics
Led by “Downtown” Fred Brown, Lonnie Shelton, Gus Williams, and Jack Sikma, the Sonics opened the season with a dozen victories before tasting defeat for the first time against an underdog New Jersey Nets team that was just 6-6 when they met. Seattle would struggle the rest of the way as they went 36-34 in their final 70 games. They were ousted in the first round of the playoffs by the Portland Trailblazers.
1996-97 Chicago Bulls
After winning their fourth NBA title in1996, the Chicago Bulls opened the 1997 campaign with 12 consecutive victories. Led by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman, the Bulls raced off to a 42-6 record at the All-Star break. They finished the season at 69-13 after losing their final game of the season against the Knicks. The Bulls went all the way to the top, defeating the Utah Jazz in the 1997 NBA Finals. Incidentally, it was Utah who dealt them their first loss of the season so they got more than revenge here.
1957-58 Boston Celtics
The Celtics team of the 50s and 60s were loaded with Hall of Famers. This was one of them. This team was led by the likes of Bill Russell, Sam Jones, Bill Sharman, Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, and Frank Ramsey. The Celtics won 14 consecutive games to start the season before losing to the New York Knicks in the back end of back to back games played in Philadelphia. The Celtics won nine titles in 10 years and this was the year where they didn’t win.
2002-03 Dallas Mavericks
Led by German superstar Dirk Nowitzki and coached by a former Celtics player in Don Nelson, this Dallas team won 14 straight games before suffering their first loss of the season to the Celtics. In a coincidence, their first defeat happened on November 28, the same date when the 1957-58 Celtics suffered their first loss of the season. They went all the way to the Western Conference Finals where they lost to the San Antonio Spurs in six games.
1948-49 Washington Capitols
Capitols? Yes, that’ correct. This isn’t the NHL team but the basketball team which existed for a total of five years, including three with the BAA. The Capitols were coached by Red Auerbach and they won 15 in a row and finished the season with a 38-22 record. The Capitols advanced to the NBA Finals but fell to George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers in six games.
1993-94 Houston Rockets
This was the pinnacle of Hakeem Olajuwon’s career. He was All-Star Game MVP, NBA MVP, NBA Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. With Rudy Tomjanovich calling the shots, the Rockets opened the season with a 15-0 record before losing to the Atlanta Hawks. Houston won seven consecutive games after that loss and they went on to win their first-ever NBA title.
2015-16 Golden State Warriors
The Warriors won their first NBA title in 2015 and they would continue the 2016 season playing as a team possessed. The Dubs started the year by going 24-0 and they would end with the best regular-season record in the history of the league with their 73-9 mark. However, they will go down in history as the best regular-season team not to win an NBA title as they would lose in seven games to the Cleveland Cavaliers
