BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…December 12, 2015:
The longest winning streak to start any season by any team in major American professional sports history ends with the Golden State Warriors’ 108-95 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. The defending NBA champions, led by superstar Stephen Curry and his 32-point scoring average, had begun the 2015-16 campaign with 24 straight victories and had won 28 straight dating back to the previous season. But the weary Warriors were wrapping up a grueling seven-game road trip that finally got to them. Just the night before in Boston, they had gone two overtimes to get No. 24 in a 124-119 win over the Celtics.
The Warriors made their historic run with an interim coach. Two days into training camp, Steve Kerr took a leave of absence due to a debilitating back injury (he wouldn’t return until January 22). So the regular season began on October 27 with assistant coach Luke Walton guiding Golden State. And that was the backdrop as the Warriors unfurled their first NBA championship banner in 40 years, with players receiving their championship rings for the title they had won in June.
Wrapped around the 24-game streak were an NBA record 54 straight regular season home wins in Oracle Arena that would continue through March 29, 2016. Golden State ended the 2015-16 season with a 73-9 record, breaking the mark of 72-10 set by the Chicago Bulls 20 years earlier. The Warriors became the first team in NBA history to never have a two-game losing streak during the regular season. No did they ever lose to the same team twice.
But alas, that was also the season that Golden State became the first team ever to lose in the NBA Finals after leading three games-to-one, as LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers roared back despite not having home court advantage in the series. The Warriors remain one of the NBA’s elite organizations, though, behind the same core trio that led them seven years ago: Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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