They say winning is a tough habit to break, and here are a selection of teams from the US professional ranks who certainly mastered the art of winning consecutive games.
Sports fans were digging into the history books earlier this summer when the Atlanta Braves were embarking on a record-threatening winning streak.
The reigning MLB champions were finally thwarted at 14; good, but just how good in the grand scheme of undefeated streaks in US sport?
Well, here are four of the very best from the Big Four.
New York Giants – 26 matches (1916)
Different era, different format, different everything really, but you still can’t deny the numbers.
John McGraw’s Giants came back from a gruelling 22-game road trip miles off the pace in the 2016 National League season, but with the coach convinced they could still get a pennant.
For that to happen they needed to win games and lots of them to have even a sniff and duly chalked up 26 of them in a row (all at home) to turn a 15-game deficit into a five game one. It ended in tears against the Boston Braves and no world series.
LA Lakers – 33 matches (1971-72)
Seven defeats in the previous nine NBA finals had got the Lakers impatient, especially with all-stars Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain in the autumn of their careers.
New coach Bill Sherman brought in some new faces and the Lakers were hot from the off.
On November 5 they beat the Baltimore Bullets 110-106 – and they wouldn’t lose again for another two months.
The fun finally ended, after 33 straight wins, on January 7 against the Bucks with Sherman lamenting: “I would trade all those wins for a championship.” No deal was needed as the Lakers would go on to be crowned champs.
Philadelphia Flyers 35 – (1979-80)
The longest undefeated streak in US pro sports history? Take a bow, the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers, who from October 14 until January 6 simply didn’t know what losing a hockey game felt like.
They chalked up 25 wins and ten draws during the course of almost three remarkable months, made all the more remarkable by the fact that they went into that stretch on the back of a 9-2 battering at the hands of the Atlanta Flames.
It was an extraordinary feat though it didn’t end with the Stanley Cup. They lost to the New York Islanders in six in the finals.
New England Patriots 21 – (2003-04)
When the Patriots started their 2003-04 season with a 31-0 thumping by Buffalo – (Tom Brady was sacked twice and picked off four times in what would be his worst ever loss) – who knew history was in the offing.
Four games later they beat the Titans 38-30 – and then they just couldn’t stop winning.
They won their next 11 regular season games, all three games in the playoffs to claim the Super Bowl, and then they went out and did it again.
A few months later they started the 2004-05 season with six straight wins – that’s up to 21 – and would go on to retain the Super Bowl.
