The best record is supposed to be the surest sign of a champion. To see how sure, we went through every season since 1979-80, the first with the three-point line: the final standings, and every playoff series rebuilt game by game from NBA.com's stats database. Then we followed the team at the top of the league through the postseason.
How often the team with the best record wins the NBA championship
Twenty-one times in 47 seasons. The count includes four seasons in which two teams shared the best record and one of them won the title: the Boston Celtics in 1980-81 (tied with the Philadelphia 76ers), the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98 (with the Utah Jazz), and the San Antonio Spurs in 1998-99 (with Utah) and 2002-03 (with the Dallas Mavericks). When Chicago and San Antonio shared it in 2011-12, neither won.
The other 26 seasons ended short, but rarely early. The best record reached the conference finals or went further in 18 of them, lost in the Finals three times and went out in the first round three times.
Looked at from the champion's side, the title has stayed close to the top of the standings. In 31 of the 47 seasons the champion had one of the two best records, and in 39 one of the three best. Only eight champions ranked fourth or lower.
Has it become harder for the best team to win the title?
Yes. Before 2000 the best record won 12 of 20 titles, 60 percent; since then, 9 of 27, or 33 percent. The 1980s belonged to Boston, the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia and the Detroit Pistons, who between them turned seven best records into championships, and Chicago added four more in the 1990s. Since 2000 no decade has produced more than four.
| Period | Seasons | Best record won | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s (1979-80 to 1988-89) | 10 | 7 | 70% |
| 1990s (1989-90 to 1998-99) | 10 | 5 | 50% |
| 2000s (1999-00 to 2008-09) | 10 | 3 | 30% |
| 2010s (2009-10 to 2018-19) | 10 | 4 | 40% |
| 2020s (2019-20 to 2025-26) | 7 | 2 | 29% |
| Before 2000 (1979-80 to 1998-99) | 20 | 12 | 60% |
| Since 2000 (1999-00 to 2025-26) | 27 | 9 | 33% |
| Play-in era (2020-21 to 2025-26) | 6 | 2 | 33% |
| All seasons | 47 | 21 | 45% |
The play-in tournament, which the league added in 2020-21, has not moved the number much: two titles in six seasons, Boston in 2023-24 and Oklahoma City in 2024-25. It did produce the earliest exit of those six seasons. In 2022-23 the Miami Heat lost their first play-in game, won their second to take the East's eighth seed, and then beat the 58-24 Milwaukee Bucks 4-1 in the first round.
The best records that did not win the championship
| Season | Team | Record | How it ended |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | Golden State Warriors | 73-9 | Finals, 3-4 vs. Cleveland |
| 2006-07 | Dallas Mavericks | 67-15 | First round, 2-4 vs. Golden State |
| 2008-09 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 66-16 | Conference finals, 2-4 vs. Orlando |
| 2017-18 | Houston Rockets | 65-17 | Conference finals, 3-4 vs. Golden State |
| 2005-06 | Detroit Pistons | 64-18 | Conference finals, 2-4 vs. Miami |
| 2021-22 | Phoenix Suns | 64-18 | Second round, 3-4 vs. Dallas |
| 2025-26 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 64-18 | Conference finals, 3-4 vs. San Antonio |
| 1981-82 | Boston Celtics | 63-19 | Conference finals, 3-4 vs. Philadelphia |
| 1984-85 | Boston Celtics | 63-19 | Finals, 2-4 vs. LA Lakers |
| 1989-90 | Los Angeles Lakers | 63-19 | Second round, 1-4 vs. Phoenix |
| 1990-91 | Portland Trail Blazers | 63-19 | Conference finals, 2-4 vs. LA Lakers |
| 1993-94 | Seattle SuperSonics | 63-19 | First round, 2-3 vs. Denver |
The 73-9 Golden State Warriors of 2015-16 had the best regular season in NBA history and led the Finals 3-1 before the Cleveland Cavaliers won the last three games. They are one of two best-record teams in this period to lose a series after leading 3-1; the other was the 1980-81 Philadelphia 76ers, who shared the best record with Boston and lost to the Celtics in the conference finals.
The earliest exits all came in the first round, three of them by a team that held the best record alone and one by Chicago, which shared it in 2011-12. All four came against the eighth seed:
- Seattle SuperSonics, 63-19, lost 2-3 to the Denver Nuggets in 1993-94.
- Dallas Mavericks, 67-15, lost 2-4 to a 42-40 Golden State team in 2006-07.
- Chicago Bulls, 50-16 and tied with San Antonio, lost 2-4 to Philadelphia in 2011-12.
- Milwaukee Bucks, 58-24, lost 1-4 to Miami in 2022-23.
Of the other 65-win teams, the 2008-09 Cavaliers (66-16) lost the East finals to the Orlando Magic, and the 2017-18 Houston Rockets (65-17) lost the West finals in seven games to Golden State, the eventual champion.
Does the best record need a big lead to win the title?
Mostly, yes. The clearest line between the best records that won and those that did not is the gap behind them. We measured each season's top team against the next-best record in the league, in games. In the 15 seasons when it finished fewer than three games clear, it never won the title. When it finished seven games or more clear, it won 8 of 9.
Last season fits the pattern. The 64-18 Thunder finished two games ahead of the 62-20 Spurs and lost to them in seven games, after leading the series 3-2. A year earlier, 68-14 and four games clear of Cleveland, they won it all. The one team that finished seven or more games clear and fell short was the Phoenix Suns in 2021-22: 64-18, eight games ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies, out in the second round against Dallas.
Win totals tell the same story. The 16 best records of 65 wins or more won 12 titles; the other 31 won nine. Ties are the exception to the pattern: in the five seasons when two teams shared the best record, one of them won four times.
The lowest-ranked NBA champions
The 1994-95 Houston Rockets are the outlier. They went 47-35, tied for the 10th-best record in the league, entered the playoffs as the West's sixth seed and beat the 62-20 San Antonio Spurs, the best record, in the conference finals on the way to their second straight title. No other champion since 1979-80 was seeded lower than third.
| Season | Champion | Record | League rank | Conference seed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994-95 | Houston Rockets | 47-35 | T-10th | 6th |
| 2020-21 | Milwaukee Bucks | 46-26 | 7th | 3rd |
| 2003-04 | Detroit Pistons | 54-28 | 6th | 3rd |
| 2025-26 | New York Knicks | 53-29 | T-6th | 3rd |
| 2005-06 | Miami Heat | 52-30 | 5th | 2nd |
| 2010-11 | Dallas Mavericks | 57-25 | T-4th | 3rd |
| 2011-12 | Miami Heat | 46-20 | 4th | 2nd |
| 2022-23 | Denver Nuggets | 53-29 | 4th | 1st |
The Knicks' 2025-26 title sits near the bottom of that list. At 53-29 they were tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the sixth-best record, behind Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Detroit, Boston and Denver, and went into the playoffs as the East's third seed. Only the Rockets and the 2020-21 Milwaukee Bucks, champions from the seventh-best record, ranked lower. New York then beat San Antonio in five games in the Finals for its first title since 1973.
The 2026-27 season: who has the best record next?
The new season starts on October 20. Oklahoma City has had the best record in each of the last two seasons, and our preseason projections put the Thunder on top again with 64 wins, five ahead of San Antonio (59) and six ahead of Boston and Detroit (58). If the season ends that way, history would make them a slight favorite and no more: best records five or six games clear have won 7 of 12 titles. The champion Knicks are projected for 54 wins.
Projections are only a starting point. The Vertize NBA simulator lets you play out the season yourself, game by game or all at once with Simulate season, and the NBA schedule has every game night by night. For the other end of the standings, see how many wins it takes to make the playoffs.
Best record and NBA champions: frequently asked questions
How often does the team with the best record win the NBA championship? In 21 of 47 seasons from 1979-80 to 2025-26, or 45 percent, counting four seasons in which the champion shared the best record. Since 2000 the rate is 9 of 27, one in three.
Has the team with the best record ever lost in the first round? Four times since 1979-80, each time against the eighth seed: Seattle in 1993-94, Dallas in 2006-07, Chicago in 2011-12 and Milwaukee in 2022-23.
What is the best record that did not win the title? The 73-9 record of the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who lost the Finals to Cleveland in seven games. Next come the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks at 67-15 and the 2008-09 Cleveland Cavaliers at 66-16.
What is the lowest seed to win the NBA championship? Since 1979-80, the sixth seed: the 1994-95 Houston Rockets, who went 47-35. Every other champion in that time was seeded first, second or third in its conference.
Did the team with the best record win the 2026 NBA title? No. Oklahoma City, at 64-18, lost the Western Conference finals to San Antonio in seven games, and the New York Knicks, tied for the sixth-best record at 53-29, won the championship.
How this was built: final regular-season standings and every playoff game from 1979-80 to 2025-26, 47 seasons, from NBA.com's stats database. Records are ranked by winning percentage, so the shortened seasons of 1998-99, 2011-12, 2019-20 and 2020-21 count like the others, and teams level on percentage share a rank. Each playoff series is rebuilt from its games and placed in its round of the bracket. When two teams tied for the best record, the season counts as a title for the best record if either won. A team's lead is the games-behind gap to the next-best record in the league. Champions, finalists and the champions' seeds were checked against the list of NBA champions on Wikipedia, and the 2025-26 records against the ESPN standings behind our preseason projections.