Longest Win Streaks in NBA History

The longest winning streak in NBA history belongs to the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, who won 33 games in a row between November and January. The 2012-13 Miami Heat sit second with 27 straight, and no team since has seriously threatened the Lakers’ half-century-old mark.

A long win streak is one of the hardest things to do in basketball. It demands a deep, healthy roster, a favorable stretch of schedule and the ability to avoid the single bad night that ends everything. The teams at the top of this list were not just good, they were relentless over weeks and months at a time. Here is the full leaderboard of the longest winning streaks in NBA history, and the stories behind them. All figures are through the 2025 season.

The record holder: the 1971-72 Lakers and 33 straight

The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers set the standard that still stands today. Their streak began on November 5, 1971 and did not end until January 7, 1972, when the Milwaukee Bucks finally beat them. That is 33 consecutive wins, spanning more than two months of the schedule without a single defeat.

The streak was the centerpiece of a historic year. Led by Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Gail Goodrich, the Lakers finished the regular season 69-13, then a league record, and won the NBA championship. No team has since come within six games of the 33-win run, and given how the modern league is structured, it may be the safest record in the sport.

The full leaderboard of NBA win streaks

The table below ranks the longest single-run winning streaks in NBA history, each contained within a season.

Rank	Streak	Team	Season
1	33	Los Angeles Lakers	1971-72
2	27	Miami Heat	2012-13
3	24	Golden State Warriors	2015-16
4	22	Houston Rockets	2007-08
5	20	Milwaukee Bucks	1970-71
5	20	Washington Capitols	1948-49

The list stretches from the earliest days of the league, with the 1948-49 Washington Capitols, all the way to the record-setting Warriors of the last decade. What unites every team on it is a combination of star power and depth that let them survive back-to-backs, road trips and the occasional off night that usually ends a streak.

The 2013 Heat: closest to the crown

The team that came nearest to the Lakers was the 2012-13 Miami Heat, who won 27 in a row from February 3 to March 25, 2013 before the Chicago Bulls ended it. That Heat squad, built around LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, was in the middle of its championship prime and won the title that June.

Six games separate 27 from 33, which sounds close but represents roughly two extra weeks of flawless basketball. Even at the height of a dynasty, Miami could not close that gap, a measure of just how far the Lakers pushed the ceiling.

The Warriors and the best start ever

The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors deserve their own mention. They opened the season 24-0, the best start in NBA history, and finished 73-9, breaking the best regular-season record in NBA history that had belonged to the 1995-96 Bulls’ 72-10 season. Their longest single streak of 24 games is third on this list.

Golden State also strung together 28 consecutive regular-season wins across the 2014-15 and 2015-16 campaigns, the longest cross-season streak on record. That mark is often cited alongside the Lakers’ run, though it spans two seasons rather than one unbroken stretch within a single year.

Why streaks matter

Winning streaks capture something a final record cannot: sustained, day-after-day dominance with no margin for error. A team can finish with a great record while dropping games throughout the year, but a streak demands perfection. That is why the 1971-72 Lakers’ 33 is treated with such reverence, and why understanding roster mechanics like two-way contracts helps explain how depth, the raw material of any long run, is built today.

The short version: the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers own the NBA record with 33 straight wins, the 2012-13 Heat are second with 27, and the 2015-16 Warriors’ 24 stands as the best season-opening streak ever. Through the 2025 season, the Lakers’ number remains untouched, one of the most enduring records in basketball.