NBA: LA Clippers win streak snapped at 17

Blake Griffin shoots over Kenneth Faried

Prior to their 92:78 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Clippers had run off a team record 17 straight wins. The last time they were on the losing end of a score they lost to the New Orleans Hornets at the Staples Center in LA, 98:105 on November 26th. That loss was their fourth straight, dropping them from an 8-2 record in their first 10 games of the 2012-13 season, to 8-6.

During their run, the Clippers didn’t just win games, they destroyed a number of teams. After beating the Timberwolves at home by six, they trashed the Sacramento Kings by 35. A few days later they hosted the Mavericks and sent them home with a 22-point loss. Then the Phoenix Suns came to town and found themselves on the losing side of an 18-point deficit. The Raptors lost by 19, the Bucks in Milwaukee by 26, the Pistons in Detroit by 12 and so on… The only team that could get closer than five (Chicago Bulls), was the Utah Jazz, who lost by one, then by two and then by nine on Sunday. It was an impressive run that had the Clippers outscoring their opponents 1780-1522 or 104.7-89.5 per game.

The streak puts the Clippers in a tie for 12th place with five other teams on the list of longest winning streaks in NBA history. The longest belonging to the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, who ran off 33 in a row during a stretch from Nov. 5th to Jan. 9th. The second longest was the 22-games in a row won by the 2007-08 Houston Rockets from Jan. 29th thru Mar. 18th. The Rockets mark is the most recent on the longest streaks in NBA history above 15 games.

The loss also drops the Clippers from the ranks of the best record in basketball, as their 25-7 (.781) mark is slightly worse than the OKC Thunder’s 24-6 (.800). The Thunder enjoy a 7.5 game advantage over the Nuggets (18-15) in the Western Conference’s Northwest Division and the Clippers are 3.5 games ahead of the Golden State Warriors (21-10) in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. In the third spot in the Pacific Division is the Los Angeles Lakers, who are still struggling this season and now sit at 15-16, 9.5 games out of first place.

Game	Day	Date	Opponent		Result	Record
1	Wednesday	Oct 31		Grizzlies	W:101-92	1-0
2	Friday	Nov 02	at	Lakers	W:95-105	2-0
3	Saturday	Nov 03		Warriors	L:110-114	2-1
4	Monday	Nov 05		Cavaliers	L:101-108	2-2
5	Wednesday	Nov 07		Spurs	W:106-84	3-2
6	Thursday	Nov 08	at	Trail Blazers	W:90-103	4-2
7	Sunday	Nov 11		Hawks	W:89-76	5-2
8	Wednesday	Nov 14		Heat	W:107-100	6-2
9	Saturday	Nov 17		Bulls	W:101-80	7-2
10	Monday	Nov 19	at	Spurs	W:87-92	8-2
11	Wednesday	Nov 21	at	Thunder	L:117-111	8-3
12	Friday	Nov 23	at	Nets	L:86-76	8-4
13	Saturday	Nov 24	at	Hawks	L:104-93	8-5
14	Monday	Nov 26		Hornets	L:98-105	8-6
15	Wednesday	Nov 28		Timberwolves	W:101-95	9-6
16	Saturday	Dec 01		Kings	W:116-81	10-6
17	Monday	Dec 03	at	Jazz	W:104-105	11-6
18	Wednesday	Dec 05		Mavericks	W:112-90	12-6
19	Saturday	Dec 08		Suns	W:117-99	13-6
20	Sunday	Dec 09		Raptors	W:102-83	14-6
21	Tuesday	Dec 11	at	Bulls	W:89-94	15-6
22	Wednesday	Dec 12	at	Bobcats	W:94-100	16-6
23	Saturday	Dec 15	at	Bucks	W:85-111	17-6
24	Monday	Dec 17	at	Pistons	W:76-88	18-6
25	Wednesday	Dec 19		Hornets	W:93-77	19-6
26	Friday	Dec 21		Kings	W:97-85	20-6
27	Sunday	Dec 23	at	Suns	W:77-103	21-6
28	Tuesday	Dec 25		Nuggets	W:112-100	22-6
29	Thursday	Dec 27		Celtics	W:106-77	23-6
30	Friday	Dec 28	at	Jazz	W:114-116	24-6
31	Sunday	Dec 30		Jazz	W:107-96	25-6
32	Tuesday	Jan 01	at	Nuggets	L:78-92	25-7