With the victory over the Wizards
last night the Knicks clinched their first Atlantic Division title since
1994. Their 13 game winning streak,
which began on March 18th, is now only 5 games short of the
franchise all time longest streak of 18 (69’).
Of course that 69’ team went on to win the NBA championship leading
Knick fans to wonder if the recent success is a sign of things to come. I have some bad news. A list of the top 30 NBA single season win streaks (15+) shows us that late season winning streaks don’t correlate with
NBA championships:
-
Of the top 30 longest winning streaks in NBA
history, 11 of those teams went on to win a title that season
-
Of those 11 teams, who went on to win a title, 0
saw their winning streak start later than February 6th and only 3 of them began
during the 2nd half of the season
-
None of
the teams whose winning streaks began during March went on to win a title
o
90-91’ Blazers lost in WCF
o
96-97’ Jazz lost in Finals
o
94-95’ Spurs lost in WCF
o
93-94’ Knicks lost in Finals
There are a couple of reasons why
late season winning streaks don’t equal NBA championships. Teams tend to rest their players in
preparation of the playoffs (exactly what the Miami Heat are doing right
now). Teams who are mathematically
eliminated from playoff contention are tanking.
If you breakdown the Knicks 13 game win streak you’ll see 6 wins fit
this criteria (Heat, Wizards, Magic, Bobcats and the Raptors twice). Also, 2 wins during the streak against Boston
came without Garnett and Rondo. This isn’t
meant to knock the Knicks, as they aren’t the ones who make the schedule, but
if you’re looking to find a relationship between this Knick winning streak and
a Championship then you will be disappointed.
No comments:
Post a Comment