Final
Phoenix Suns at Golden State Warriors
113 – 116
2026-27 · Regular season
Six NBA teams are 1-6, tying the most since 2014-15, and only one of 37 teams that started 1-6 or worse finished at .500 or better
The Bulls, Bucks, Jazz, Kings, Nets and Clippers are all 1-6. Since 2014-15, 37 teams started 0-7 or 1-6 and one finished at .500 or better, and Chicago’s minus-16.3 margin is worse than any of them.
In this article
Six NBA teams are 1-6 after Monday night: the Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks, Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, Brooklyn Nets and LA Clippers. The Phoenix Suns are 1-4. Combined, the six are 6-36 and are being outscored by 11.9 points a game.
That ties the most teams with one win or none after seven games in any of the last 12 seasons. The 2021-22 season also had six. We went through the game logs of all 360 team-seasons from 2014-15 through 2025-26 to see what those starts have turned into, and how much of each team’s early numbers has tended to stick.
The numbers that stand out
- Of the 37 teams since 2014-15 that were 0-7 or 1-6 after seven games, one finished at .500 or better: the 2024-25 Bucks, who went 48-34. The average finish was 25.5 wins per 82 games
- The 2021-22 group of six finished with 36, 25, 24, 23, 22 and 20 wins. Only New Orleans got above 25
- Chicago is being outscored by 16.3 points a game, worse than any of the 37 earlier teams at that point. The previous worst was the 2025-26 Nets at 15.7
- The Bulls allow 128.9 points a game, 15.5 above the league average of 113.4. No team in the 360-season sample was that far above the league average through seven games. The widest before was 14.1, by the 2019-20 Pelicans, who finished 30-42
- Twelve earlier teams were 1-6 or worse and were outscored by more than 11 points a game. None won more than 28 games and the group averaged 20.4
- Sacramento, Utah, Milwaukee and Chicago are all past that line. Brooklyn and the Clippers, at minus-8.6 and minus-7.3, are not
What seven games have meant
Teams that start slowly almost never get all the way back. Teams with two wins after seven games did a lot better than the group below them, and one in four of them finished at .500 or better.
| Wins in first seven games | Teams | Average final wins per 82 games | Finished at .500 or better |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 or 1 | 37 | 25.5 | 1 |
| 2 | 50 | 32.0 | 13 |
| 3 | 94 | 39.5 | 49 |
| 4 | 91 | 45.3 | 69 |
| 5 | 54 | 47.6 | 39 |
| 6 or 7 | 34 | 53.0 | 31 |
Regular seasons 2014-15 through 2025-26. The shortened 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons are scaled to 82 games.
The six teams that did best from this start were all outscored by 7.6 points a game or fewer over their first seven games. That matters, because a team’s scoring margin has told us more than its record.
| Team | Record after seven | Margin, first seven games | Final record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 Bucks | 1-6 | -6.6 | 48-34 |
| 2014-15 Pacers | 1-6 | -3.4 | 38-44 |
| 2021-22 Pelicans | 1-6 | -6.7 | 36-46 |
| 2019-20 Pelicans | 1-6 | -5.0 | 30-42 |
| 2022-23 Magic | 1-6 | -4.7 | 34-48 |
| 2016-17 Pelicans | 0-7 | -7.6 | 34-48 |
Margin is points scored minus points allowed, per game. 2019-20 season shortened.
We fit each team’s record and scoring margin through seven games against its winning percentage over the remaining games. Margin alone explains about 34 percent of the differences between teams after that point. The record alone explains 31 percent. Using both only gets to 35 percent, so the record adds almost nothing once the margin is known. Each point of early margin is worth about three-quarters of a win over the remaining 75 games.
Where each team stands
| Team | Record | Points scored | Points allowed | Margin | Projected final wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | 1-6 | 112.6 | 128.9 | -16.3 | 22.9 |
| Sacramento | 1-6 | 110.1 | 124.3 | -14.1 | 24.4 |
| Milwaukee | 1-6 | 111.1 | 124.1 | -13.0 | 25.3 |
| Utah | 1-6 | 107.0 | 118.9 | -11.9 | 26.1 |
| Brooklyn | 1-6 | 105.6 | 114.1 | -8.6 | 28.5 |
| LA Clippers | 1-6 | 108.1 | 115.4 | -7.3 | 29.4 |
Regular season through Monday, per game. League average is 113.4 points a team. Projection uses the seven-game record and margin, and carries a margin of error of about nine wins either way.
The projection puts the six at an average of 26.1 wins, which is in line with the 25.5 that the 37 earlier teams averaged. Because it is a rough model, it can only say where a start like this usually ends up, not where one team will.
Offense or defense
Not all of these teams are struggling in the same way. Chicago, Sacramento and Milwaukee have the three worst defenses in the league, allowing 128.9, 124.3 and 124.1 points a game. Chicago scores only 0.8 below the league average. Brooklyn, Utah and the Clippers are the other kind of team. Brooklyn is second-last in the league in points scored at 105.6, behind only Charlotte at 97.4, and Utah and the Clippers are 6.4 and 5.3 below the average.
Over the same 360 team-seasons, how a team scores and how it defends over its first seven games have lasted about equally well against the rest of the year. The correlations with the rest of the season, measured against the league average, are 0.47 for points scored and 0.52 for points allowed.
| Group after seven games | Teams | First seven games | Rest of the season | Finished at .500 or better |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allowed 7 or more above average | 45 | 10.0 above | 2.9 above | 14 |
| Scored 5 or more below average | 70 | 7.8 below | 2.8 below | 31 |
Points per game against each season’s league average.
Both groups lose most of their early gap, about two thirds to three quarters. The difference is where it leaves them. Teams that allowed 7 or more points above the average, which is the problem in Chicago, Sacramento and Milwaukee, averaged 33.6 wins a season and only 14 of 45 got to .500. Teams that scored 5 or more points below it averaged 35.4 wins and 31 of 70 got there, which is better news for Brooklyn, Utah and the Clippers.
Sacramento’s one win
The Kings were 0-6 and had allowed 128.3 points a game when they beat Dallas 115-100 on Monday. It was the first time all season that they had held a team under 120. Darius Acuff Jr. scored 25 with six assists, Malik Monk had 24 and seven assists and Zach LaVine had 23.
One win does not change the table above. The Kings are still being outscored by 14.1 points a game. Five earlier teams in this group were at that margin or worse after seven games, and none won more than 26 games.
Two of the six wins came against teams in the group: Chicago beat Milwaukee, and the Clippers beat Sacramento by 25. The other four came against Indiana (twice), New Orleans and Dallas.
What’s next
There are no games Tuesday. All six teams play Wednesday: Milwaukee at Boston (5-2) and Chicago at New York (3-4) at 7:30 p.m. ET, Utah at New Orleans (3-4) at 8 p.m., Sacramento hosts the Lakers (6-2) at 10 p.m. and the Clippers host Miami (2-5) at 10:30 p.m. Charlotte, which scores the fewest points in the league, plays at Brooklyn, which scores the second fewest, at 7:30 p.m. ET.
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