The Cleveland Cavaliers’ 15-game winning streak to start the season is officially over.
In the NBA’s 79 seasons, only 15 teams have started a season with 10 or more consecutive wins — new coach Kenny Atkinson’s Cavs being one of them.
However, all good things must come to an end, and the Cavaliers’ perfect start to the 2024 campaign ended at the hands of the defending champion Boston Celtics on Tuesday night, who ground out a thrilling 120-117 win behind Jayson Tatum‘s 33 points.
Nevertheless, the 2024-25 Cavaliers will forever be included in a group of elite teams, as their 15-0 start to the season is the fourth best in NBA history.
The defeat means the Golden State Warriors continue to own the longest winning streak to start an NBA season.
The Warriors opened the 2015-16 NBA season on a barely believable 24-game win streak.
The Dubs rolled into the 2015-16 season as the defending champions with a prime, MVP Steph Curry splashing in threes from all over the court.
With assistant coach Luke Walton standing in as the interim head coach as Steve Kerr recovered from back surgery, Golden State was dominant from the off, starting on opening night when they received their rings and raised the 2014-15 NBA Championship banner.
The Warriors rattled off the next 24 wins, becoming the first team in NBA history to start the season with more than 15 straight victories.
Eventually, their historic 24-0 start came to an end with a 108-95 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in December.
They didn’t lose a game between October 27 and December 11.
The Warriors had won 28 games in a row when you take into account the last four games of the previous season, five games shy of the longest winning streak in history (33), which was achieved by the 71-72 Los Angeles Lakers.
The all-conquering Warriors continued to roll, though, finishing the season with an NBA-best 73-9 regular-season record.
That eclipsed the previous best record of 72-10, set by Michael Jordan and the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
But unlike MJ’s Bulls, Golden State and unanimous MVP Curry failed to win the title after a regular season for the ages.
Steve Kerr’s squad fell to the Cavaliers in seven games in the 2016 Finals, becoming the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-1 series lead.
Herculean LeBron James was not to be denied, putting in one of the greatest NBA Finals performances of all time to deliver Cleveland its first world title.
The King’s clutch block on Andre Iguodala in Game 7 was the standout moment of the 2016 Finals, a series that saw him become the first player in NBA history to lead all players in a playoff series in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.
The 2024 Cavs ultimately fell short of beating Golden State’s 24-0 start.
However, they can still have the last laugh over Curry and co. by following LeBron’s 2016 example and beating the Warriors to basketball’s biggest prize.
