Inside the numbers: Led by Cleveland and Oklahoma City, it was the season of the streak in the NBA

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Inside the numbers: Led by Cleveland and Oklahoma City, it was the season of the streak in the NBA

2025-04-19 09:59 Last Updated At：10:01

It was the year of the long winning streak in the NBA.

There were five instances of teams winning 11 or more games in a row — three by Cleveland, two by Oklahoma City, and it's probably no coincidence that those two teams are the ones that earned No. 1 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference playoff brackets.

It was the first time since 2017-18 that there were five separate winning streaks of 11 or more games in a season — there were a record 10 in the league that season.

Cleveland, which had winning streaks of 16, 15 and 12 games, became the second team in NBA history to have three streaks that long in the same season. The other was the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks.

There was a flip side as well, those being losing streaks. Washington had two 16-game slides, the first NBA team have two of those in the same season since Charlotte had runs of 0-16 and 0-23 in the 2011-12 season.

Miami — which won an overtime play-in game at Atlanta to earn the No. 8 seed — became the 10th team in league history to lose at least 10 straight games and make the playoffs. The most recent teams to pull off such a feat: the 2021-22 Brooklyn Nets, the 2009-10 Chicago Bulls and 2001-02 Toronto Raptors.

Boston enters these playoffs as the defending NBA champion. But the Celtics are No. 1 again on another list as well.

For the first time since 1996-97, the Celtics ended a season with the best all-time record among active franchises. Boston passed San Antonio for the top spot; the Spurs had ended every season from 2014-15 through 2023-24 as No. 1 on that list.

The Lakers passed the Celtics in 1997-98 and held that spot for 17 seasons, before San Antonio climbed to No. 1. And now, it's Boston's turn to be atop the league again.

Boston's winning percentage in regular season games all-time is .596, which is .004 points ahead of the Spurs. The Lakers are third by a sliver — San Antonio's winning percentage is .59230, and the Lakers' is .59152.

There was a .002-point margin between the Celtics and Spurs entering this season.

The playoff pool for this season is a record $34,665,698, up 3% from last season.

As the team with the NBA’s best record, the Oklahoma City Thunder are already assured $2,096,424 from that pool. If the Thunder win the NBA title, they will claim more than one-third of the pool — $12,420,504.

Teams get shares for finishing with a top-six record in their conference, plus for making the playoffs and the size of the shares increase for advancing to later rounds. There's about a $5 million difference between winning and losing the NBA Finals.

The Pistons are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Their fans have waited longer than that for a playoff win.

A lot longer.

Detroit's last playoff victory was May 26, 2008 — 94-75 against Boston. The Pistons are 0-14 in playoff games since.

The 14-game playoff losing streak is the longest in NBA history. New York had a 13-game streak that spanned from 2001 through 2012.

Every other NBA team has at least three playoff game wins since Detroit's most recent playoff victory. Some have way, way, way, way more than three, of course: Boston has 125, Miami has 110 and Golden State has 108 since then.

And there are six players — LeBron James (157), Klay Thompson (108), Draymond Green (107), Danny Green (105), Andre Iguodala (104) and Kevin Durant (101) — who have played in more than 100 playoff wins since the Pistons’ last postseason victory.

If the Pistons lose Game 1 against New York, Stephen Curry might join that 100-win club as well — he’s at 99.

Sorry, Milwaukee and the Clippers. History says those teams will not win the NBA title this season.

There’s never been a No. 5 seed to win a championship during the current playoff format. There’s been only one No. 5 seed — Miami during the bubble season in 2020 — to make the NBA Finals.

It’s not just an NBA thing. There’s never been a No. 5 seed to win a national championship at the NCAA Division I level — men’s or women’s — either.

Here’s some good news for the Southeast Division: two of its teams are going to the playoffs. Orlando is the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, and Miami is the No. 8 seed.

Here's the bad news: the division combined to make the wrong kind of history this season.

The combined winning percentage of the five Southeast teams — Orlando, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte and Washington — was .378, making it the worst record for any division in NBA history. The previous mark was .384 by teams in the Central Division in 1970-71.

Take away the 40-40 record that the division teams had against one another (obviously, one team won, one team lost each of those games), and the Southeast clubs went 115-215 against teams from the other five divisions.

Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers both went 10-0 against the Southeast this season. Portland and Memphis went 9-1.

Boston is in the playoffs for the 11th consecutive year, while Milwaukee is in for a ninth consecutive season and Denver has qualified in each of the last seven years. Miami is in for the sixth consecutive season.

Philadelphia's seven-year streak of playoff appearances ended.

Charlotte has now missed the playoffs in nine consecutive seasons, while San Antonio is out for the sixth consecutive year.

The streak continued last season when a pair of division champions — Boston and Dallas — made the NBA Finals.

Going back to 2012, every team that made the NBA Finals — with one exception — did so after winning a division championship that season. That exception: Golden State in 2022, when it beat Boston for the title.

If form holds this season, that means either Boston, Cleveland or Orlando will win the Eastern Conference, while Oklahoma City, Houston and the Los Angeles Lakers (tiebreaker winners over the Los Angeles Clippers) will win the Western Conference.

If the Clippers make the second round — or if he goes wild scoring in Round 1 — James Harden might move into the top 10 on the NBA's all-time scoring list when accounting for both regular season and playoff games.

Harden enters these playoffs at No. 11 with 31,451 combined points. That's 217 back of San Antonio great Tim Duncan for 10th on that list.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James has league records for playoff games played, games won, games lost, points scored, field goals made, field goals attempted and steals.

If that doesn't clearly define his dominance, maybe this will help.

James enters these playoffs with 8,162 career postseason points. That's more than any two other players who are in these playoffs have combined; Stephen Curry and James Harden enter this postseason with a combined 7,730 points.

Oklahoma City was absolutely dominant this season with a 68-14 record and the biggest point differential in NBA history, 12.9 points per game.

The Thunder dominated in Las Vegas, too.

Oklahoma City covered 68% of the time as a favorite, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, this season — by far the best rate in the NBA over the last 10 seasons.

And this isn't a new thing for the Thunder. This was the third time in the last six seasons that OKC covered in more that 61% of its games. The rest of the league, combined, had three such seasons in that span.

If Golden State doesn't get swept by Houston, Warriors coach Steve Kerr will join a select club.

Kerr enters these playoffs with 99 postseason wins as coach of the Warriors (really, it's 100, but play-in games don't count in official NBA records).

That means Golden State's next win will officially give him 100 in the playoffs — and make him the fifth coach ever to win that many playoff games with one franchise.

Gregg Popovich has won 170 with San Antonio. Phil Jackson has done it twice; 118 with the Lakers and 111 with Chicago. Erik Spoelstra has won 110 playoff games in Miami and Spoelstra’s boss — Heat president Pat Riley — won 102 playoff games with the Lakers.

For the fourth time in the last five regular seasons, the NBA home winning percentage was 54%.

It’s almost eerie how consistent that number has been.

Over the last five seasons, the home winning percentages were .544 in 2020-21, .544 in 2021-22, .580 in 2022-23, .543 last season and .544 this season.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Pope heads to Cameroon as separatists announce 3-day pause in fighting

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is heading to the central African nation of Cameroon with a message of peace for its separatist region and for talks with President Paul Biya, the 93-year-old leader whose grip on power was extended for an eighth term in a widely disputed election last year.

The Vatican says fighting corruption in the mineral-rich country and insisting on the correct uses of political authority are expected to be themes of Leo’s visit, which starts Wednesday with his arrival in Yaounde, the capital. Leo was traveling to Cameroon from Algeria, the first stop on his four-nation Africa tour.

The Vatican has made clear that Catholic social teaching disapproves of the types of authoritarian leaders that Leo is encountering on his visit, the first to the continent by history's first American pope.

Biya is the world’s oldest leader and has led the central African nation since 1982.

Leo will meet with Biya upon arrival at the presidential palace in the capital Yaounde. He’ll then address Cameroon government authorities, civil service representatives and diplomats before visiting an orphanage run by a Catholic religious order of nuns.

Cameroon authorities made a last-minute change to the program, the Vatican said Wednesday. Biya, and not the prime minister, will now deliver a speech before Leo addresses government authorities and the encounter will occur in the presidential palace, not a conference center.

Cameroon’s opposition has contested the result of the Oct. 12 election that secured the victory for Biya. His election rival, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, claims to have won and has called on Cameroonians to reject the official result.

Just this week, Leo issued an unrelated message on the correct role of political leaders and the need for “authentic democracy” to legitimize their authority and act as a “guardrail against the abuse of power.”

In a message to a Vatican academy for social science, Leo wrote that democracy remains healthy only when it is driven by morality and a vision of humanity that respects the dignity of everyone.

“Lacking this foundation, it risks becoming either a majoritarian tyranny or a mask for the dominance of economic and technological elites,” he warned in a message that wasn’t directed at any particular nation or leader and was dated April 1.

Leo has two major events in Cameroon, with the highlight a “peace meeting” on Thursday in Cameroon’s northwest city of Bamenda, which has been plagued by separatist violence.

English-speaking separatists launched a rebellion in 2017 with the stated goal of breaking away from the French-speaking majority of Cameroon and establishing an independent English-speaking state. The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced over 600,000 others, according to the International Crisis Group, a think tank.

On the eve of Leo’s arrival, the English-speaking separatists announced a three-day pause in fighting to allow “safe travel” for Leo’s visit.

The Unity Alliance, which includes several separatist groups, said in a statement late Monday the pause reflects the “profound spiritual importance” of the visit and is intended to allow civilians, pilgrims and dignitaries to travel safely.

Leo’s other big event in Cameroon, where about 29% of the population is Catholic, is a Mass on Friday in the city of Douala, where some 600,000 people are expected to turn out.

On Saturday, Leo heads to Angola for the third leg of his trip, which ends next week in Equatorial Guinea.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.