Fact or Fiction: The list of NBA title contenders is longer than you think

Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

Last week: The NBA will have another 100-point scorer

Fact or Fiction: The list of NBA title contenders is longer than you think

Stephen Curry once told us, “A good team, or a relevant team, wins the games they’re supposed to win, steals a couple on the road against good teams and protects home court.” By his definition, the NBA features plenty of good teams.

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So, last year, we set about finding out what makes a great team, and we discovered two simple truths about championship teams. They win more than the games they are supposed to, and they steal more than a couple on the road against good teams. In fact, this century’s champions have won on average 63.4% of their games against teams with a winning record and 63.9% of their games against teams on the road.

CHAMPION

VS. .500+

ROAD

2000 LAL

36-10 (.783)

31-10 (.756)

2001 LAL

31-21 (.596)

25-16 (.610)

2002 LAL

32-14 (.696)

24-17 (.585)

2003 SAS

34-13 (.723)

27-14 (.659)

2004 DET

22-18 (.550)

23-18 (.561)

2005 SAS

31-17 (.646)

21-20 (.512)

2006 MIA

19-21 (.475)

21-20 (.512)

2007 SAS

23-16 (.590)

27-14 (.659)

2008 BOS

24-14 (.632)

31-10 (.756)

2009 LAL

31-12 (.721)

28-12 (.700)

2010 LAL

27-20 (.575)

23-18 (.561)

2011 DAL

25-19 (.568)

28-13 (.683)

2012 MIA

25-15 (.625)

18-15 (.545)

2013 MIA

30-12 (.714)

29-12 (.707)

2014 SAS

29-16 (.644)

30-11 (.732)

2015 GSW

32-9 (.780)

28-13 (.683)

2016 CLE

27-21 (.563)

24-17 (.585)

2017 GSW

33-11 (.750)

31-10 (.756)

2018 GSW

30-19 (.612)

29-12 (.707)

2019 TOR

22-20 (.524)

26-15 (.634)

2020 LAL

20-14 (.588)

27-9 (.750)

2021 MIL

19-17 (.528)

20-16 (.556)

2022 GSW

27-21 (.563)

22-19 (.537)

2023 DEN

29-18 (.617)

19-22 (.463)

2024 BOS

34-15 (.694)

27-14 (.659)

2025 OKC

47-17 (.734)

37-13 (.740)

To succeed in the playoffs you must be able to beat good teams and win on the road. This isn’t rocket science. But it is a pretty tried-and-true theory. We should probably come up with a name for this. The Curryculum? We’re just spitballing…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/fact-or-fiction-the-list-of-nba-title-contenders-is-longer-than-you-think-173429065.html

Author : Ben Rohrbach

Publish date : 2026-03-20 17:34:00

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