Today’s Sportstat: March 9, 2020
The last 20 games of the NBA season: Which team is the best over the past three years?
The NBA’s best team (record-wise), the Milwaukee Bucks, was 53-9 on Friday, March 6 before they played the Los Angeles Lakers. They were starting their last 20-game stretch in this season.
A loss to the Lakers that night and another loss to the Phoenix Suns two days later meant the Bucks had started the final 20-game stretch with a 0-2 season.
Fortunately, the Bucks have already secured a playoff spot for this season. For other teams, however, the final 20-game stretch is where they will make a push for not only a spot in the playoffs, but a high seed to gain home court advantage.
Over the past previous three NBA seasons (2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19), there were three teams that won 70% or higher of their last 20 games in each of those three seasons… 60 games in total over three campaigns.
Topping the list were the Houston Rockets who went 44-16 (.733) in the last 20 games of the season in the last three years. Two fellow Western Conference teams followed the Rockets: Utah at 43-17 (.717) and Portland at 42-18 (.700).
Here’s a look at how many games each NBA team won in the past three seasons in the last 20 games of the campaign… 60 games total.
44: Houston
43: Utah
42: Portland
41: Toronto
40: Golden State
38: San Antonio
37: Boston
36: Denver, L.A. Clippers, Miami, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City
34: Philadelphia
31: Indiana
28: New Orleans
27: Brooklyn, Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit
26: Orlando
25: Washington
24: Minnesota
23: Sacramento
22: Atlanta
21: Chicago, L.A. Lakers
20: Memphis
18: Dallas
15: New York
14: Phoenix
Only one team, the 1996-97 Utah Jazz, won 19 of their last 20 games of a season. Seven teams won 18 of their last 20, the most recent of those teams being the 2017-18 Philadelphia 76ers. Last season the Rockets won 16 of their last 20 games, the most of any team in the NBA. Portland and San Antonio were next with 15 wins in their last 20 games last season.
Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp
Today’s Sports Stat: May 27, 2018
With their Game Six win over Houston, the Golden State Warriors forced a Game Seven in the Western Conference Finals. By doing so, for the first time in almost 40 years we have both conference finals series going to a decisive Game Seven.
The last time both conference finals series went to a seventh game was in 1979 when the Seattle Supersonics beat the Phoenix Suns in Game Seven to advance to the ’79 NBA Finals and the Washington Bullets won Game Seven over the San Antonio Spurs to reach the finals that same year. The only other time both conference finals went to a seventh game was in 1963.
For the Celtics and Rockets this year, they have history on their side when it comes to conference finals Game Seven; the home team has won Game Seven of the conference finals 26 of the 33 times. The good news for the Warriors and Cavs is that there have been seven times when an away team has won Game Seven of conference finals. Those seven times:
1968: Boston
1971: Baltimore
1973: New York Knicks
1976 Phoenix
1982: Philadelphia
2002: Los Angeles Lakers
2005: Detroit
As you might expect, the Boston Celtics have had the most Game Seven wins in the conference finals (also called the division finals at one time). The Celts have won seven Game Sevens in conference/division finals. The Lakers are second in this category with five such wins.
On the flip side, the Indiana Pacers have lost the most conference/division finals Game Sevens with four. They are followed by the Celtics, Philadelphia76ers and St. Louis Hawks with three each.
One final stat: The 33 teams that have won a conference/division finals by winning Game Seven have only gone on to win the NBA Finals that year 16 times. Fatigue factor?
Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp
Today’s Sports Stat: May 21, 2018
Not that the Houston Rockets needed any more bad news after their 126-85 drubbing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors in Game Three of their Western Conference Finals series, but suffering a 40-point loss in the conference finals did not bode well for previous teams who suffered such a classic beatdown.
The Rockets 41-point loss to Golden State was the sixth time in conference finals history that a team has been defeated by 40 or more points. And in four of the previous five times, the team that lost that blowout also lost the series.
Here’s a look at the six conference finals games where there was a 40-point differential in the score.
1958: St. Louis 145, Detroit 101 (44-point difference)
1973: L.A. Lakers 126, Golden State 70 (56-point difference)
1982: Boston 121, Philadelphia 81 (40-point difference)
1985: L.A. Lakers 153, Denver 109 (44-point difference)
2017: Cleveland 130, Boston 86 (44-point difference)
2018: Golden State 126, Houston 85 (41-point difference)
The only team to lose a conference finals game by 40 or more points and still win the conference finals series were the 1982 Philadelphia 76ers. Boston defeated the 76ers 121-81 in Game One of the series, a 40-point whupping, but the 76ers ended up winning the series in seven games and advanced to the NBA Finals that year.
Will the Rockets fall in the series, or will they be able to recover from this historic loss and win the series against the Warriors?
Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp
Today’s Sports Stat: May 12, 2018
The next round of the 2018 NBA playoffs are set with the Boston Celtics taking on the Cleveland Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals and Golden State Warriors facing the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals.
The home court advantage will likely be a factor in both series. The Celtics will have the advantage in the East, while the Rockets will host four of the potential seven games in the West.
Consider this:
Of the 64 games played so far in the NBA playoffs this season, home teams are 46-18, a .719 winning percentage. In fact, the four teams remaining in the playoffs are 23-2 at home in this post season (a staggering .920 winning percentage) while these same four teams are only 9-9 (.500 winning percentage) as the away team in this year’s playoffs.
Here’s a look at each of the remaining four teams’ records in home and away playoff contests this year:
Boston: 7-0 at home; 1-4 on the road
Cleveland: 5-1 at home; 3-2 on the road
Golden State: 6-0 at home; 2-2 on the road
Houston: 5-1 at home; 3-1 on the road
Let’s take a look back to 2010. The Celtics, Cavs, Warriors and Rockets have been regulars in the post season in the last nine seasons, although the Rockets have not played as many post-season games as the other three since 2010. Following are the home and away records in the post season of the four teams since 2010.
Team, Home record/Away Record
Boston, 35-16 (.686)/17-31 (.354)
Cleveland, 31-9 (.775)/26-15 (.634)
Golden State, 41-8 (.837/23-19 (.548)
Houston, 19-10 (.655)/9-17 (.346)
The Cavs and Golden State are the only two teams of the 30 NBA squads to have a winning percentage over .500 in road playoff games since 2010.
One final stat:
Home teams are 59-30 in conference finals since 2010, a .663 winning percentage.
Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp
Today’s Sports Stat: March 6, 2018
The Houston Rockets have now won 15 straight games becoming the third franchise in NBA history to have four or more consecutive winning streaks of 15 or more in their history.
The Rockets team record is 22 straight which they did from January 29, 2008 to March 16, 2008. They also had a pair of 15-game winning streaks back in the 1990s; one was in the 1992-93 season and the other was the following year during the 1993-94 campaign.
Both the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers franchises have had six winning streaks of 15 or more, topping the list.
Here are the franchises that have had the most winning streaks of 15 games or more in their history.
6: Boston, L. A. Lakers
4: Houston
3: Milwaukee, San Antonio, Washington
2: Golden State, N.Y. Knicks, Phoenix, Portland, Utah
1: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, L.A. Clippers, Miami, Philadelphia, Rochester Royals
Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp
Sports Stats 'on Tapp' 