The Golden State Warriors has crossed out the “best start in NBA history” off their to-do list, next goal: the Los Angeles Lakers’ 33-game win streak.
The Warriors began the 2015-16 NBA regular season with an unprecedented 16 straight wins, surpassing Houston Rockets and Washington Capitals’ 15-0 record. That is just after the fact that they just won the franchise’s first NBA title in 40 seasons.
On Sunday, the team’s 112-109 victory over the Toronto Raptors broke another record for the best start to a season by a professional sports team. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Warriors’ 21-0 record moved the team past the St. Louis Maroons of Union Association, a league in Major League Baseball.
The Warriors undefeated run continued as it beat Indiana Pacers 131-123 on Tuesday, pushing its winning streak to 23-0 this season.
Now that the Dubs are half way to reaching the Lakers’ 33-game win streak in 1971-72, sportsbooks are beginning to wonder, what are the odds that they would match or top the Lakers’ more than 40 years NBA record of the team that has the most number of consecutive wins in a single season?
According to Bodog, the Warriors stand at 10/1 odds to break the Lakers’ all-time record and they won’t at 1/25. I say you can bet on it as future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant believes that the Warriors can do it.
“Yeah, they could do it – because they’re good,” said Bryant. “It’s a very young league, and they’ve managed to put together a team of extremely intelligent players and extremely versatile players, and great shooters. And so I see no reason why they couldn’t continue to extend (the record).”
The Warriors remained unscathed after its games against the Pacers and the Raptors, which are the best teams (record-wise) that they’ll face before they play the Cleveland Cavaliers on Christmas Day. If Lebron James failed to go up against a 28-0 Golden State win, a mediocre string of opponents awaits until they mark another NBA history, paving a way for another goal— the single-season wins record of 72, set by the Chicago Bulls in 1995-96.
Considering no team outside of Michael Jordan‘s Bulls has even reached 70 wins, the odds for Warriors to reach it is much steeper at 5/1 while the odds of them not breaking an all-time record are at 1/8.
That’s a long shot that even the Warriors’ coach Steve Kerr doesen’t believe that his team could pull if off. So for now, I’d rather put my money on Philadelphia 76ers to make the playoffs.
