Cavs and Thunder lead season of the streak

NBA

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Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, center, drives against the Kings in Sacramento, Calif., on March 25. RANDALL BENTON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Tim Reynolds

The Associated Press

It was the year of the long winning streak in the NBA.

There were five instances of teams winning 11 or more games in a row — three by Cleveland, two by Oklahoma City, and it’s probably no coincidence that those two teams are the ones that earned No. 1 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference playoff brackets.

It was the first time since 2017-18 that there were five separate winning streaks of 11 or more games in a season — there were a record 10 in the league that season.

Cleveland, which had winning streaks of 16, 15 and 12 games, became the second team in NBA history to have three streaks that long in the same season. The other was the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks.

There was a flip side as well, those being losing streaks. Washington had two 16-game slides, the first NBA team have two of those in the same season since Charlotte had runs of 0-16 and 0-23 in the 2011-12 season.

Miami was bidding to become the 10th team in league history to lose at least 10 straight games and make the playoffs. The most recent teams to pull off such a feat: the 2021-22 Brooklyn Nets, the 2009-10 Chicago Bulls and 2001-02 Toronto Raptors.

The Celtics are No. 1, in multiple ways

Boston enters these playoffs as the defending NBA champion. But the Celtics are No. 1 again on another list as well.

For the first time since 1996-97, the Celtics ended a season with the best all-time record among active franchises. Boston passed San Antonio for the top spot; the Spurs had ended every season from 2014-15 through 2023-24 as No. 1 on that list.

The Lakers passed the Celtics in 1997-98 and held that spot for 17 seasons, before San Antonio climbed to No. 1. And now, it’s Boston turn atop the league again.

Boston’s winning percentage in regular season games all-time is .596, which is .004 points ahead of the Spurs. The Lakers are third by a sliver — San Antonio’s winning percentage is .59230, and the Lakers’ is .59152.

There was a .002-point margin between the Celtics and Spurs entering this season.

Playoff pool record

The playoff pool for this season is a record $34,665,698, up 3% from last season.