Heat 4th Team Ever to Win 20 Straight in a Season

Forget Jordan and Pippen, the Miami Heat’s dynamic duo of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are chasing Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlin. After letting Wade take lead for a few games to become NBA Player of the Week, James was back in complete charge in Philadelphia Wednesday night to make the Heat the fourth team ever to win 20 straight in a season.

In 1971-72 the Los Angeles Lakers had by far the longest streak ever with 33 straight wins to improve their record to 39-3 en route to an easy NBA title. That year West scored 24.2 points a game and dished out 9.1 assists a game, and a 35-year-old Chamberlin scored 14.8 points per game and grabbed an incredible 19 rebounds a game to lead the Lakers to an average 121 points a game.

The Lakers scored more than 100 points in 81 of 82 games that season, losing only a meaningless 94-108 game at home to the Baltimore Bullets to fall to 59-12.

However, this one was not easy and the 76ers led as late as the final six minutes of the game when Jrue Holiday’s three-pointer made it 83-82 Philadelphia. But a Ray Allen three-pointer and Dwayne Wade tapping in a James miss was enough to pull out the victory.

For the entire AP game story, click here.