The Longest Winning Streaks in NBA History, Ranked

The longest winning streak in NBA history is 33 games, set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers between November 5, 1971 and January 7, 1972. More than half a century later, nobody has come closer than five games. The 73-win Warriors stopped at 28. LeBron James's Heat stopped at 27. Michael Jordan's 72-win Bulls never won more than 18 in a row. A winning streak punishes everything at once - injuries, back-to-backs, a cold shooting night - and the teams below dodged all of it for a month or more. This list covers every regular-season run of 19 games or longer, the best starts, the longest playoff streaks, and the home and road records - and the night each one finally died.

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How a Winning Streak Is Counted

Winning streaks are kept on two separate lists. The main list counts regular-season games only, which is why the Warriors' 15 straight playoff wins in 2017 live on a list of their own. A regular-season streak is allowed to carry over from one season into the next, so the record book includes runs that started in April and ended the following winter. That rule matters right at the top: Golden State's 28 straight spanned two seasons, while the Lakers' 33 and the Heat's 27 came inside one. The books also count the Basketball Association of America, the league's name before its 1949 merger with the National Basketball League, which is why the 1940s Washington Capitols still appear.

1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers - 33 Games

The streak started with a retirement. Elgin Baylor, worn down by years of injuries, retired nine games into the 1971-72 season, and the Lakers' very first game without him began the run. They were 6-3 at the time. On November 5 they beat the Baltimore Bullets 110-106 at the Forum, and they did not lose again for two months. Los Angeles went 14-0 in November and 16-0 in December, and won No. 33 on January 7, 1972, a 134-90 rout in Atlanta that made it 39-3.

New coach Bill Sharman built the run on conditioning and the fast break. He reshaped Wilt Chamberlain's game around defense, rebounding and quick outlet passes to guards Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, and Jim McMillian took over Baylor's spot at small forward and played at a near All-Star level. Sixteen of the 33 wins came on the road, and those 16 straight road victories are still the NBA record.

The streak ended on January 9, 1972, in Milwaukee, where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's defending-champion Bucks won 120-104. They still finished 69-13, a record that stood until the 1995-96 Bulls went 72-10, then beat the Knicks in five games for the franchise's first title since moving to Los Angeles. Chamberlain was named Finals MVP and Sharman won Coach of the Year.

2014-16 Golden State Warriors - 28 Games Across Two Seasons

The second-longest streak began quietly at the end of a championship season. Golden State beat Portland 116-105 on April 9, 2015, won its last four regular-season games, and went on to win the 2015 title. When the next season opened - with assistant Luke Walton on the bench because Steve Kerr's back had not healed in time - the streak simply picked up where it left off.

The 2015-16 Warriors won their first 24 games, the best start in NBA history. Win No. 16 broke the 15-0 mark shared by the 1948-49 Capitols and the 1993-94 Rockets. Win No. 21, a 112-109 victory in Toronto on December 5, passed the 20-0 start of the 1884 St. Louis Maroons, a baseball team, for the best start in all of major American professional sports. Win No. 24 took double overtime in Boston, 124-119, with Draymond Green posting 24 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals and 5 blocks.

The next night, on the second half of a back-to-back, the Warriors lost 108-95 in Milwaukee. That froze the overall run at 28 and handed the Bucks an odd distinction: the two longest winning streaks in NBA history both ended in Milwaukee. Golden State finished 73-9, the best record ever, and became the first team to go an entire regular season without losing two games in a row.

2012-13 Miami Heat - 27 Games

Miami's run began on Super Bowl Sunday, February 3, 2013, with a 100-85 win in Toronto. The Heat were 29-14 before it started and 56-14 when it ended, and they won every game they played for the rest of February. By March the streak had turned into a survival act. Miami came back from double-digit deficits in four straight games, including a 105-103 win in Boston on March 18 that made it 23 in a row and moved Miami into second place at the time. Two nights later in Cleveland, Miami trailed by 27 points in the third quarter and still won 98-95 for No. 24.

LeBron James won his fourth MVP that season and missed a unanimous vote by a single ballot. The streak ended on March 27 in Chicago, where the Bulls won 101-97. Miami finished 66-16, the best record in franchise history, and then won the title in seven games over San Antonio. No team has topped 27 within a single season since.

2007-08 Houston Rockets - 22 Games

The most improbable streak on the list belonged to a team that lost its best player halfway through it. Houston was 24-20 in its first season under Rick Adelman when it beat Golden State 111-107 on January 29, 2008. Twelve wins later, on February 26, news broke that All-Star center Yao Ming would miss the rest of the season with a stress fracture in his left foot. The Rockets then won 10 more without him, with Tracy McGrady leading the team in scoring most nights and Rafer Alston scoring 31 in the 22nd win, over the Lakers.

At 22, Houston passed the 1970-71 Bucks for the second-longest streak in NBA history at the time. It ended on March 18 at home, where the eventual champion Celtics won 94-74. Without Yao, the Rockets finished 55-27 and lost to Utah in six games in the first round.

1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks - 20 Games

Before the Lakers owned the record, Milwaukee held it for less than a year. In only the franchise's third season, the Bucks paired newly acquired Oscar Robertson with second-year center Lew Alcindor, who led the league at 31.7 points per game, and built two long streaks in one season. The first ran 16 games, from October 24 to November 25, 1970. The second ran 20, from February 6 to March 8, 1971, and was the longest in league history at the time. It started with a win in San Francisco and ended on March 9 in Chicago, 110-103.

Milwaukee finished 66-16, swept the Baltimore Bullets in the Finals, and Alcindor won both MVP and Finals MVP. He changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar before the next season, and in January 1972 his Bucks were the team that ended the Lakers at 33.

Editorial illustration: The Longest Winning Streaks in NBA History, Ranked

The 19-Game Club

Four teams have won exactly 19 in a row, each in a different way.

1999-2000 Los Angeles Lakers. Phil Jackson's Lakers won 19 straight from February 4 to March 13, 2000. In the middle of it, Shaquille O'Neal scored a career-high 61 points against the Clippers on March 6. The run ended on March 16 in Washington, 109-102, despite 40 points from O'Neal. That team finished 67-15 and won the first of three straight championships.

2008-09 Boston Celtics. The defending champions started 27-2, the best two-loss start in NBA history, behind a 19-game streak from November 15 to December 23. The Lakers, Boston's 2008 Finals victims, ended it on Christmas Day, 92-83. The Celtics then lost seven of their next nine.

2013-14 San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs began their 19-game run on February 26 and went a perfect 16-0 in March. Oklahoma City ended it on April 3, 106-94. San Antonio finished 62-20 and won the championship.

2014-15 Atlanta Hawks. The surprise of the group. Mike Budenholzer's Hawks won 19 straight from December 27 to January 31, including a 17-0 January, and sent four players - Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver - to the All-Star Game. New Orleans ended it on February 2, 115-100. Atlanta finished 60-22, a franchise record for wins, and was then swept by Cleveland in the conference finals.

1995-96 Chicago Bulls - 18 Games

Jordan's 72-10 Bulls topped out at 18 straight, tied for 11th on the all-time list. From December 29, 1995 to February 2, 1996, Chicago went 18-0, including a perfect 14-0 January, to reach 41-3, the best three-loss start in NBA history. The Denver Nuggets ended it on February 4, 105-99, despite 39 points from Jordan.

Their 18 matched two older runs. The 1969-70 Knicks won 18 straight from October 24 to November 28, 1969, on the way to a 23-1 start and a championship. The 1981-82 Celtics won 18 straight in February and March of 1982. Chicago's truly dominant streak that year was at home: the Bulls started 37-0 at the United Center as part of a 44-game home winning streak that reached back into 1994-95.

The Best Starts: 24-0 and the 15-0 Club

Golden State's 24-0 is the only season-opening streak longer than 15 games. Three other teams have started 15-0. The 1948-49 Washington Capitols, coached by Red Auerbach, did it first; their start was the back half of a 20-game streak that began in March 1948 and ended against the Indianapolis Jets on December 7, 1948. The 1993-94 Houston Rockets went 14-0 in November, lost for the first time on December 3 in Atlanta, 133-111, and went on to beat the Knicks in seven games for the title. The 2024-25 Cleveland Cavaliers opened 15-0 in Kenny Atkinson's first season as coach, then won a franchise-record 16 straight in February and March on the way to 64-18.

The closest anyone has come to the Warriors since is the 2025-26 Oklahoma City Thunder. They started 24-1, tying Golden State for the best 25-game start in league history, behind a franchise-record 16-game streak. San Antonio ended it in the NBA Cup semifinals on December 13, 2025, 111-109.

The Longest Playoff Winning Streaks

The postseason record is 15, set by the 2016-17 Warriors in Kevin Durant's first season with the team. Golden State swept Portland, Utah and San Antonio to go 12-0 through the West, then won the first three games of the Finals against Cleveland. The Cavaliers ended it with a 137-116 win in Game 4 on June 9, 2017. The Warriors closed it out in Game 5 to finish 16-1, the best playoff record in NBA history, and Durant was the unanimous Finals MVP.

Before that, the cleanest playoff runs belonged to the Lakers. The 1988-89 Lakers swept Portland, Seattle and Phoenix to open 11-0, then lost their starting backcourt of Magic Johnson and Byron Scott to injuries and were swept by Detroit in the Finals. Counting the final two games of the 1988 Finals, that run reached 13 straight. The 2000-01 Lakers also opened 11-0, then dropped Game 1 of the Finals at home to Philadelphia, 107-101 in overtime, with Allen Iverson scoring 48. They won the next four and finished 15-1, the best mark until 2017.

The newest name on the list is the 2025-26 Knicks, who won 13 straight in the 2026 playoffs: the last three games of their first-round series against Atlanta, sweeps of Philadelphia and Cleveland, and the first two games of the Finals. San Antonio won Game 3 to end it, but New York took the series in five for its first championship since 1973.

Home and Road Streaks

The home record belongs to Golden State as well. The Warriors lost at home on January 27, 2015, and then won 54 straight regular-season home games from January 31, 2015 to March 29, 2016. They broke the old record of 44, the Bulls' run that included their 37-0 home start in 1995-96, with a win over Orlando on March 7, 2016. The Celtics finally ended it on April 1, 2016, 109-106.

The road record still belongs to the 1971-72 Lakers. Sixteen of their 33 straight wins came away from the Forum, and no team has won more consecutive road games. The 2015-16 Warriors opened the season 14-0 on the road, the best road start in league history.

What the Longest Streaks Have in Common

Three patterns stand out. Long streaks usually belong to champions. Six streaks in NBA history have reached 20 games, and four of them touched a championship season: the 1971-72 Lakers, the 2014-15 Warriors, the 2012-13 Heat and the 1970-71 Bucks. The exceptions are the 1940s Capitols and the 2007-08 Rockets.

Streaks die on the road. The Lakers' 33 ended in Milwaukee. So did Golden State's 28. The Heat's 27 ended in Chicago, the Bucks' 20 ended in Chicago, the 2000 Lakers' 19 ended in Washington, the Hawks' 19 ended in New Orleans, and the Bulls' 18 ended in Denver. Houston's 22, snapped at home by the Celtics, is the rare exception.

And 33 looks safer every decade. Since 1972, only three teams have won even 20 in a row: the Warriors, the Heat and the Rockets. The best regular-season team in history, at 73-9, fell five wins short. Breaking the record means winning every game for roughly two months, and the two best recent challengers, the 2024-25 Cavaliers and the 2025-26 Thunder, each topped out at 16 straight.

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