The NBA isn’t the NFL. Sure, we’ll occasionally get an outlier like the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors starting 24-0, but rarely does talk of how long any team will remain undefeated last longer than a week or two in basketball. The sport comes with too much inherent randomness. It’s too easy to lose to a lesser team because of shooting variance, or because of a few injuries, or even just a quick turnaround and some travel after your last game. Nobody won more than their first five games last season.
But this season? We don’t just have one unbeaten team through two weeks, we have two. The Cleveland Cavaliers lead the pack at 8-0. The Oklahoma City Thunder are right behind them at 7-0. The Warriors are the only team in the past 20 years to even reach 10-0, but there’s a chance both of these teams get there this season.
So let’s cut to the chase and ask the question on all of our minds: who’s going to remain unbeaten longer? Let’s dig in and figure it out.
Who’s been better?
It depends on what you value. Oklahoma City has outscored opponents by a league-best 17.1 points per 100 possessions. Cleveland’s net rating is a very impressive but slightly more modest plus-12.7. The Cavaliers are, however, a tad more balanced. They are one of three teams to rank in the top five in the NBA in both offense (No. 2) and defense (No. 5). The Thunder have actually struggled a fair bit on offense, ranking 19th by scoring 110.9 points per 100 possessions. It just hasn’t mattered because their defense is historically good. They are allowing 93.8 points per 100 possessions, more than eight fewer than any other defense.
Both teams have played relatively weak schedules thus far. They have combined to play three teams over .500, with Cleveland beating two and Oklahoma City beating one. Still, with the schedule so compressed this early in the season, that’s not a totally fair measure of opponent quality. On that front, Cleveland has the slight edge with a number of impressive wins. They’ve beaten the Knicks and Bucks on the road and the Lakers at home. The Thunder stomped the Nuggets on opening night, but have mostly played bottom-feeders since then. Ultimately there are arguments for both, though for reasons we are about to discuss, I’d lean Oklahoma City slightly.
Who’s come closer to losing a game?
We’re going to pick a president before the Thunder play a game decided by single digits. Nobody has even mildly annoyed Oklahoma City yet. Their closest win was by 12 points, but they led that game by 18 with two minutes remaining before San Antonio hit a couple of garbage-time buckets. Most of their