Lakers’ 33-Game Win Streak: The NBA's Longest Run

On January ninth, nineteen seventy two, the Los Angeles Lakers lost a game to the Milwaukee Bucks, which officially ended when the most historic runs in NBA history, as the Lakers had just won thirty three games in a row, a feat that no one has touched before or since, which led them to have one of the most historic seasons of all time, being led by some of the most historic players of all time in Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, showing their absolute dominance on the court and the perfection they had during this run of almost two months without losing a single game. Today, we're going to dive into the challenges, the close calls, and the moments of brilliance that happened during this historic run and why it is one of the most unbeatable streaks in all of its basketball history. Today on Daily Sports History, Welcome to Daily Sport's History. I mean, then, Reaisee, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sport's history every day. And today's trivia question to listen out for is what is the second longest winning streak in NBA history? Listening throughout the episode to find the answer, and if you miss it, I'll give it to you at the very end. Now, before we get to the streak, let's learn about the team itself that happened in the nineteen seventy one. In nineteen seventy two season, they were led by head coach Bill Shram, who had played over ten seasons in the NBA for the Washington Capitals and the Bostons, but mainly for the Boston Celtics, and before coming to the Lakers, he had coached the San Francisco Warriors in the Los Angeles and Utah Stars of the ABA before coming to the Los Angeles Lakers in nineteen seventy one, where he replaced Joe mulnaney. As in the previous year, they again failed to win the NBA Championship. They had lost the NBA Championship mainly to the Boston Celtics six times in eight years, and in nineteen seventy they got the chance to face another team in the NBA Finals in the New York k Knicks, and again they lost the championship. And in nineteen seventy one, after losing Jerry West, their leading scorer, to a season ending injury in February, they lost in the Western Conference Finals to the Milwaukee Bucks, and coming into the nineteen seventy one seventy two season, many experts thought they had missed their chance to win a championship with this aging team as their stars Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and Jerry West. Now, Wilt Chamberlain had been playing in the NBA since fifty nine and by this point had already won four different MVPs and been selected to eleven All Star Games, and joined the Lakers in nineteen sixty eight after playing for the Warriors and the seventy six Ers previously in Jerry West joined the Lakers in nineteen sixty when they drafted him second overall out of West Virginia, and he would go on to be an All Star in every single year he was in the NBA, and in nineteen sixty nine he actually won the NBA Finals MVP despite the fact that the team did not win the NBA Finals, and Elgin Baylor joined the NBA in nineteen fifty eight with the los into the Lakers and formed a great duo with Jerry West, where he was an eleven time All Star, ten time first NBA and all three of these players would have their numbers retired by the Lakers after they would retire and were all in their thirties and had missed significant time due to injuries in the previous two years. But Bill Sharman really focused on conditioning drills during the offseason and during the season to help retool their game to have more success and less injuries, and really retooled Wilt Chamberlain's game to focus on defense, rebounding, and jump starting in the fast break with outlet passes to Jerry West and Gale Goodrich. The only problem was this up tempo style really took a toll on Elgin Baylor, who would later retire nine games into the season. But shortly after his retirement is when they really took off on November fifth, nineteen seventy one, where they played the Washington Bullets and were able to eke out a win one oh ten to one oh six, getting their first win that would go on to become the law its win streak in NBA history. And this all happened after suffering a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, who were the defending champs who had arguably the best player in the league in Luele Sinder better known today as Kareem al dul Jabbar. Prior to this season, the record for the most wins in a single season was sixty eight, done by the Philadelphia seventy six Ers in the nineteen sixty six sixty seven season when they won the NBA Championship. With a familiar name on their team in Wilt Chamberlain, and the Lakers continued to win, playing seven games in nine days, they would win seven straight games in the next nine days, and while playing the rivals, the Boston Celtics, Wilt Chamberlain showed he had bought into his different role in the team, scoring just three points, but also recording a triple double, having thirty one rebounds, thirteen blocks, and ten assists. On December fifth, they finished having they finished having a perfect month, going fourteen to zero, nine wins at home, five on the road, and on December twelfth, nineteen seventy one, at twenty straight wins, they faced the Hawks, who gave them a run for their money the entire game, as if they won this they would set the record for the NBA's longest win streak that was set the previous year by the Milwaukee Bucks, who set the record at twenty wins, and they would battle until the closing minutes where Wilt Chamberlain would make an easy basket to give them the lead, and they would steal the ball three times in the final thirty nine seconds to seal the victory one oh five till one ninety five, giving them the longest win streak in NBA history at twenty one. With this streak now being in the review, they wanted to set the longest streak in American professional history, which was at the New York Baseball Giants who won twenty six victories in a row in nineteen sixteen, and that would come just before Christmas that year on December twenty second, when they won their twenty seventh game in a row, beating the Baltimore Bullets, who started the whole streak. Now, even though they set this record, Jerry West said that they didn't really care that they had set the record for the longest streak in professional team history in America. They just wanted to continue to play good basketball and the counterflips into nineteen seventy two, and they were thirty to oh at that time and they got a win over the rival Boston in a win over Cleveland in a huge, dominating forty four point victory versus Atlanta to give them their thirty third straight win, and the question was would they ever lose? With thirty three wins in an eighty two game season, they had won forty percent of their total games that season, and they were leading the league with thirty nine wins to just three losses, an historic pace that the NBA had not seen before. And then came a game versus the Milwaukee Bucks, the defending champs who were thirty five and eight coming into the game, still being led by a great center in Luel Cinder the greatest guards of all time in Oscar Robinson, and they were battling with them throughout the entire game. The Bucks would take the lead at the end of the first half and not look back. It would take the game, winning by sixteen points, breaking the streak on the backs of the Lueu Sinders thirty nine point game with Obsca Robinson pitching in seventeen and despite the Lakers having everyone on their starting five score over fifteen points, they just could not keep up with the dominance that the Milwaukee Bucks put up that night. As Luel Sinder played the entire game except for one minute, as he wanted to make sure that the streak was broken with them now. During the streak, the Lakers averaged one hundred and nineteen points a game, outscoring their opponents by twelve points, and they held opponents under one hundred points eight times, and they won by a point plus margin six different times. Now, their record of thirty nine to four still remains the best record during the first forty three games of the season, and they would go on to win the NBA title that year, defeating the New York Knicks, and they would set the record winning sixty nine games for the most wins in an NBA season, which would eventually be broken by the Chicago Bulls and the fifteen to sixteen Golden State Warriors, who won seventy three games. Will Chamberlain had said afterwards they were all so tired as they had pushed for every single game to win every single game. It was just draining on their team. But Jerry West said it was the greatest team he'd ever been on. Forget the personalities, as there was a lot on the team, but on the floor they thought as one and the closest anyone has come to the thirty three game win streak happened in twenty twelve twenty thirteen when Miami Heat had a twenty seven game win streak with Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh and thirty three games is still the longest in American team sports history. In baseball, the Giants still hold the record with that twenty six game win streak. NFL New England Patriots had a twenty one game win streak between the two thousand and three to two thousand and four season, and in hockey, the longest win streak happened with the Pittsburgh Penguins when they won seventeen games in the nineteen ninety two to ninety three season. And in the WNBA, the longest streak was twenty two games, done by the Seattle Storm in the twenty and ten season, led by MVP Lauren Jackson and point guard Sue Byrd, and this ended up sing being a really special year besides the fact that they won thirty three games in a row. They would go on to make their way through the playoffs, facing off again against the Knicks in the NBA Playoffs, where they would win the NBA title, which was Jerry West's first NBA title and Wilt Chamberlain's second, and it was the lakers first title since nineteen fifty four. Following the season, Bill charm would be named NBA Coach of the Year, Jerry West would make First Team All NBA and First Team All Defense, joined by Wilt Chamberlain on that defensive team, and Wilt Chamberlain would lead the NBA in shooting percentage, averaging just under sixty five percent shooting, But he wasn't the scoring behemoth, as he only averaged fourteen point eight points that season, but he averaged nineteen point two rebounds. Now, this was a special team. They did come back the next year and make it all the way to the NBA Finals to lose again to the Knicks, but it was a strong team, a veteran team that was something special. They changed their perspective under their new head coach, Bill Bill Sharmon, who changed Wilt Chamberlain into a defensive diamondo more than just a scoring machine, and that change led to an NBA championship that the Lakers have been missing for years. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History, and if you want more NBA content, check out The Dime Droppers podcast, where your host Darien gives you an unapologetic take on the realities of the NBA in the world around it, giving you all you need to know on a game to game basis. We'll put a link in the description below for you to check them out, and if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a like and review wherever you're listening and tell us what NBA season was your favorite and did you catch the answer today's trivia question what team has the second longest win streak in NBA history And the answer is the Miami Heat the twenty and twelve twenty thirteen season, when they won seven games with the Big Three of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh.