Turning up the Heat on one of US sport’s greatest winning streaks

When the members of the LA Lakers team that won the 1971-72 NBA title got together last year to reminisce about the good old days, one question dominated the event: would there ever be a season like theirs?

It’s a question becoming more and more pertinent now as America slowly moves into spring: could there ever be a team to threaten the greatest winning streak in American sport? When the Lakers won 33 games in a row with astonishing ease that winter, every season since has made it look as though they did it for keeps.

I’m not sure how it compares to any of football’s ‘Invincibles’ but the increasingly brutal schedule of professional basketball in the US means that it must be up there in the world of sport.