73–9 was a crazy accomplishment by the Warriors, but as crazy as it sounds, it’s the losses that really stand out.
By now you’ve probably already heard enough about the Golden State Warriors completing the greatest regular season in NBA history. (Spoiler alert: The team finished 73–9.) There are a lot of reasons to love this Warriors team—here are ten big ones—but what fascinates me the most about the record isn’t the 73, as ridiculously impressive as it is; it’s the nine.
See, those nine losses came against some of the worst-to-average teams in the league:
- Milwaukee: 33–49, missed playoffs
- Dallas: 42–40, west 6th-seed
- Denver: 33–49, missed playoffs
- Detroit: 44–38, east 8th-seed
- Portland: 44–38, west 5th-seed
- LA Lakers: 17–65, missed playoffs
- San Antonio: 67–15, west 2nd-seed
- Boston: 48–34, east 5th-seed
- Minnesota: 29–53, missed playoffs
Some weird facts about this group of teams:
- Composite record: 357–381 (a .484 winning percentage); remove the nearly-as-historic Spurs and that drops to 290–366 (.442)
- Four teams that not only missed the playoffs, but comprised the second (Lakers), fifth (T-Wolves), eighth (Bucks) and ninth (Nuggets) worst records in the league.
- Of the five others, only the Spurs qualified for the playoffs higher than a fifth seed.
- Only two losses came on the second leg of a back-to-back: 1) December 12 in Milwaukee (the Dubs’ first loss of the season after starting 27–0), the night after an intense double-OT win against the Celtics in Boston; and 2) March 19 in San Antonio, with the Spurs going all-out to prove to themselves and the league they stand a chance come playoff time.
Sure, even the greatest teams have off-nights, but it was still surprising to see Stephen Curry & Co. play down to the level of their competition at all. Fortunately for them, I guess, they won’t have to face any more middling teams now in the playoffs, and they are obviously the hands-down favorite to repeat as NBA Champions.
Speaking of which…
Prior to the 2011 NBA Finals between the Mavericks and Heat, I broke down the weirdness of teams winning multiple championships between 1980–2010:
Since 1980 — that’s 31 seasons — only eight teams have one the NBA Title. EIGHT! The only teams to win just one title in that span were the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983 and the Heat in 2006 — against the Mavericks.
Since then, the Mavericks, Heat (twice), Spurs and Warriors have won. The updated list of title winners from 1980–2015:
Lakers: 10
Bulls: 6
Spurs: 5
Celtics: 4
Pistons: 3
Heat: 3
Rockets: 2
76ers: 1
Mavericks: 1
Warriors: 1
That’s still only ten teams over the past 36 seasons! And if the Warriors go back-to-back — or if the Spurs can surprise them in the semis and then finish off the weaker East finalist — that’ll make for ten repeats, with the 76ers (1983) and Mavericks (2011) the only teams to win one in the span.
As I did in 2011, let’s compare the NBA to other leagues over that period:
- MLB: 19 teams won the World Series (over 35 seasons, not 36, due to ’94 strike) — though that number hasn’t changed since 2011 due to there only being repeat winners
- NFL: 16 won the Super Bowl (over 37 seasons)
- NHL: 16 won the Stanley Cup (over 35 seasons, not 36, due to ’05 strike)
It seems that no matter the league, winning begets winning, even decades apart (see Lakers: five titles in the 80s, five in the 00s). I’m excited to see how the NBA and NHL playoffs unfold; will new teams get added to these lists? We’ll see.
Originally published at alexmizrahi.tumblr.com.
