Great teams that came up short
With Warriors apparently cruising to a record season, history says not all great squads win gold
As the Golden State Warriors continue to win, the conversation has shifted: It seems to be a given that they are the best team in the NBA. The debate now is whether they will surpass the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who went 72-10, as the best NBA team ever.
But no matter how great a record the Warriors post, they will still have to win in the play-offs or be considered a failure. The past is littered with regular-season powers that fell in the postseason.
The Warriors are 55-5 after beating the Thunder, 121-106, on Thursday night. But the San Antonio Spurs are 52-9, a record that would be making headlines in a Warrior-less league. The Cleveland Cavaliers have LeBron James. It is far from impossible that the Warriors will fail to win the title. If so, they would join a distinguished list of great teams that came up short of a championship.
NBA: 1972-73 BOSTON CELTICS
The four best regular-season teams in NBA history went on to win a championship. Fifth on the list? The 1972-73 Celtics. Led by Dave Cowens, John Havlicek and Jo Jo White, Boston put up a record of 68-14, eight games better than anyone else in the league.
In the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics came up against a New York Knicks team that had gone 57-25. The seven-game series alternated home sites, and the teams held serve in Games One and Two. In Game Three, the Knicks grabbed a key victory at Boston Garden, behind 23 points from Walt Frazier, then won a double-overtime game to go up by three games to one. Boston fought back to force a Game Seven, but the Knicks benefited from an injury to Havlicek and won the series.
“With Havlicek’s right arm virtually useless,” The New York Times said, “and Boston’s outside shooting always suspect, the Celtics had to try to go to Cowens all the time — and the Knick defence made them pay the price.”
The Knicks went on to win their second title in four years. The Celtics were 56-26 the next season, but won the championship.
BASEBALL: 1906 CHICAGO CUBS
The best regular-season record in baseball history, and one of the most impressive in sports, belongs to the 1906 Cubs, who were a dazzling 11636, a .763 winning percentage that would translate to 124 wins in a 162game season. They won at home (5621), on the road (60-15), against good teams (31-12) and against bad teams (85-24). They scored the most runs in the majors and gave up the fewest.
The team was led by the legendary double-play combination of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance. Mordecai Brown, nicknamed Three Finger, was the ace, with a record of 26-6.
But it was not enough in the World Series against the crosstown rival White Sox, who were 93-58 in the American League. Neither team cracked a .200 batting average in the tight series, but the Sox managed to beat Brown twice and win, four games to two.
“Among the expert critics of baseball it is generally admitted that to the American pitchers most of the credit is due,” The Times reported.
The Cubs bounced back to win the next two World Series (but to fans’ chagrin, they have not won since).
NFL: 2007 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
The only NFL team to have gone 16-0 in the regular season is the 2007 Patriots. Tom Brady led the league in passing yards, touchdowns and a slew of other categories, with Wes Welker and Randy Moss as his key targets.
The Patriots were 12-point favourites over a 10-6 wild-card New York Giants team in the Super Bowl. It took the famed Helmet Catch by David Tyree for the Giants to pull off the upset.
“It’s the greatest victory in the history of this franchise, without question,” John Mara, co-owner of the Giants, said.
“It’s disappointing; we came so close to being special,” Patriots defensive lineman Richard Seymour said. “We’re second-class.”
The Patriots went on to lose another Super Bowl to the Giants after the 2011 season, before lifting the trophy for the 2014 season.
NHL: 1929-30 BOSTON BRUINS
It was another era, but the 1929-30 Bruins, the defending champions, put up the best points percentage in NHL history with a record of 38-5-1 — 77 points out of a possible 88. Cooney Weiland led the league in goals, edging his teammate Dit Clapper. Along with Dutch Gainor, they made up the Dynamite Line.
A 3-1 semi-final series win over the Montreal Maroons led to a Stanley Cup finals matchup against the Canadiens, who had been only 21-14-9 in the regular season.
In a best-of-three series, however, the Bruins were swept, 3-0 and 4-3. The Times called it “one of the most surprising form reversals in the history of the rink sport.” The Bruins had to wait until 1939 for their next title.
MLS: 1998 LOS ANGELES GALAXY
A record of 24-8, in an era when there were no ties, was the best in Major League Soccer history in terms of points per game. But in the best-ofthree conference finals, the Galaxy lost by 1-0 and then again in a shoot-out, to be swept by the Chicago Fire. They made three of the next four MLS Cups, though, winning in 2002.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL: 201415 KENTUCKY
There have been many Division I men’s basketball teams with perfect regular-season records who fell in postseason play. The record for wins is jointly held by 2013-14 Wichita State and 2014-15 Kentucky, both at 34-0. Although Wichita State was a No.1 seed in the NCAA tournament, they came out of the Missouri Valley Conference so were not considered a big favourite. They lost in the second round.
But this Kentucky team was widely heralded as the best in many years in college basketball. They advanced to the Final Four but fell to Frank Kaminsky and Wisconsin, 71-64. Six Kentucky players were drafted the next summer, and the depleted team are currently ranked No. 22.
It may seem unfair that in North American sports, elite teams that falter in the play-offs are sometimes dismissed as chokers. That’s a label the Warriors will be keen to avoid when this season’s play-offs roll around. Few would bet against a championship. But few would have bet against Three Finger Brown or Dit Clapper, either.