Utah Jazz

Length of Warriors' win streak not so cut and dry

Published Dec. 9, 2015 5:56 p.m. ET

Sam Gardner

Call it nitpicking if you want, but there's one tiny problem with the Golden State Warriors' current 27-game win streak: They haven't won 27 straight games. It's at least 23 (from this regular season) and at most 26 (including the last three games of June's NBA Finals) but it's definitely not 27 (which counts 23 from this regular season and four from the end of the previous regular season) — no matter how badly the NBA wants you to believe it is.

That's not meant to be a slight of the Warriors, whose dominance over the past year-plus has been a treat to watch, nor is it an indictment of the plaudits the defending champs continue to receive, which are completely and unquestionably deserved. They're the best team in the league, and will remain so regardless of whether they break the 1971-72 Lakers' record of 33 consecutive wins.

The #WarriorsStreak reaches 27 as the #SplashBros go off, through the lens of our slo-mo #PhantomCam! https://t.co/wHPY4c5NIB
— NBA (@NBA) December 9, 2015

Golden State has lost five times since its last regular-season defeat, against New Orleans on April 7. The most recent came to the Cavs in Game 3 of the NBA Finals in June. And playoff results notwithstanding — it's unheard of for postseason wins to factor into all-time streaks in any sport — it's problematic and perhaps unfair to allow a streak to span two seasons.

The official NBA Media Guide lists two different records for the league's longest win streak. One, "most consecutive games won," considers regular-season games regardless of the season in which they were played. The other, "most consecutive games won, one season," only factors in games played in the course of a single regular season. (Another, "most consecutive games won, start of season," already belongs to the 23-0 Warriors and has since before Thanksgiving.)

Allowing the former two to exist as separate marks is a nice way for the league to recognize that not all win streaks are created equal (even if the top three streaks coming into the current campaign all occurred within a single season) but when it comes to promoting the Warriors' particular accomplishment, the NBA is taking the most marketable approach, common sense be damned.

Scroll through the NBA Twitter page and you'll find multiple examples of the league pinning the Warriors' run at 27 games. Doing so may seem rather benign and self-congratulatory — after all, they're just emphasizing the longer of the two streaks — but when you look at the schedule and consider the road ahead for Golden State, it makes a lot more sense why 27, not 23, is the magic number.

Friday and Saturday, the Warriors play a road back-to-back against Boston and Milwaukee, followed by a five-game homestand. The first of those games back at Oracle Arena comes against Phoenix, followed by a rematch with the Bucks and a visit from the Jazz, who put a scare in Golden State a couple weeks ago when the teams met in Salt Lake City.

Wins in each of those games are hardly a given, even for the league's preeminent team, but should the Warriors escape that stretch unscathed, they'll sit at "32" consecutive wins with a Christmas Day Finals rematch against Cleveland on deck.

How's that for timing?

The NBA would love to see the Splash Brothers tie Wilt & Co. on the biggest day of the regular season, like it would be thrilled to see LeBron exact a little revenge and preserve a record once thought to be unbreakable. In either case, it makes for great TV, and it sure beats having to wait for the Warriors to win four more games and potentially tie the mark against Denver on Jan. 2.

To be sure, it's not that the NBA is wrong to try to capitalize on the Warriors' incredible run. There's not a league or network executive in the world who wouldn't do the same if the scheduling gods put this opportunity at their feet. (The Cavs and Warriors would have been matched up on Christmas whether a record was in play or not, so we're not talking about a conspiracy.)

Conveniently counting four regular-season wins from eight months ago when selling the public on a record-breaking run all feels a little contrived, regardless of how long the NBA's version of record-keeping has stood. Simply put, it's a streak that suits the suits.

For my money, the most impartial way to go about evaluating Golden State's ongoing greatness is to only consider wins that came over the course of one season.

Aside from the fact that the Warriors have technically lost since their last "loss," there are simply too many changing variables in a given offseason to allow a win streak to carry over the summer. Though the Warriors' roster is mostly unchanged from the squad that won the title in June, they're still a different team than they were last season, as is every other team they've faced this fall.

With each new season comes an opportunity to set a record, and while the record books may leave room for interpretation, the Warriors will not have dethroned the Lakers unless they get to 34 consecutive wins in 2015-16. Fortunately, the best part of all is that they might do it, even if the players, the league and its fans have to wait an extra couple weeks to make it official.

You can follow Sam Gardner on Twitter or email him at samgardnerfox@gmail.com.