Since the Los Angeles Clippers acquired Chris Paul before the 2011-12 season, only the San Antonio Spurs (297 regular-season wins) and Oklahoma City Thunder (272) have won more games than the Clippers (269).
But the Clippers haven't gotten over the hump in the postseason -- they haven't even made the West finals.
Sporting the NBA's best record, the Clippers finally appear ready to overcome their historical failures. Will they?
Let's take a look.
Historic domination
The Clippers are off to their strongest start ever at 7-1 after blowing out the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday in a game they led by as many as 48 points. When we look inside that eight-game start, we can see why this looks to be the Clippers' best shot at reaching the conference finals, perhaps winning the West and sailing into the NBA Finals.
Per Basketball-Reference.com, the Clippers are off to one of the best starts in NBA history in terms of point differential. They've outscored their opponents by 135 points through their first eight games, the seventh-best total ever through that span. Over the past two decades, only last season's Golden State Warriors have surpassed that total.
Historically, a dominant start has been an indicator of success to come, but not necessarily a title.
While four of the six teams ahead of the Clippers went on to win the championship -- last season's Warriors and the 1971-72 Milwaukee Bucks being the exceptions -- only one of the other six teams with point differentials of plus-120 or better in their first eight games did so (the 2007-08 Boston Celtics).
Clippers have been here before
One reason a strong start might not always translate into a title is that the first eight games aren't necessarily any more meaningful than any other eight-game stretch throughout the season, and when we consider the entire season we have seen the Clippers play at this level before.
Their plus-16.9 differential makes this effort only tied for the third-best performance over an eight-game span by the Clippers in the CP3 era.
The Clippers won every game in December 2012, continuing a streak that started in their last game of November and ultimately stretched 17 games, so it's not surprising that they had two different eight-game stretches during that winning streak as impressive or more in terms of point differential. Though the Clippers won 56 games that season, they ended up finishing fourth in the West and lost to the Memphis Grizzlies in the opening round with Blake Griffin limited by a sprained ankle.
The following season, the Clippers caught fire after the All-Star break, winning their last three games of February and first eight of March, including a 48-point drubbing of their rival Lakers. That was their strongest eight-game stretch in terms of point differential, but it wasn't enough to propel the Clippers any higher than third in the West and they lost to the Thunder in the conference semifinals.
Finally, in the fall of 2014 the Clippers won nine consecutive games, three of them by 20 points or more. That 2014-15 Clippers team came closest to the conference finals, taking a 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets in the semifinals before dropping three straight games and the series.
Why might this season be different?
In a word, defense. The Clippers have finished no worse than sixth in offensive rating in the Paul era (that coming last season, when Griffin missed 47 games because of injuries and a suspension). Yet they've also finished no better than sixth in defensive rating, that also coming last season.
So far this season, the Clippers have far and away the league's best defensive rating at 89.3 points allowed per 100 possessions. The gap between them and the second-ranked Charlotte Hornets (95.4) is larger than between the Hornets and the Milwaukee Bucks, who rank ninth.
That ties in with the other explanation for why the Clippers have started so well, which is a surprisingly impressive second unit. Among lineups with at least 50 minutes played, the Clippers' starting five has the league's lowest defensive rating at 81.6, per NBA.com/Stats. The Clippers' bench group of Raymond Felton, Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers, Wesley Johnson and Marreese Speights ranks second at 89.2.
Taking a closer look at the Clippers' defense reveals reasons both in favor of and against L.A. keeping up this pace. Per NBA.com/Stats, opponents are shooting just 29.0 percent against the Clippers on attempts outside the paint, far and away the league's lowest mark. Next best are the Bucks at 33.0 percent. Given the Clippers allowed 36.1 percent shooting on such shots last year, that's unlikely to persist.
At the same time, the Clippers have done a great job of forcing opponents to take the right shots from a defensive perspective. Other teams are shooting 29.2 percent of their attempts in the restricted area (seventh lowest in the league) and 25.2 percent of their attempts from 3-point range (second lowest). Only the Utah Jazz (27.6 percent) have forced a higher percentage of attempts on 2-pointers outside the paint (27.2 percent).
As a result, if all teams allowed opponents to shoot league average from each distance, the Clippers' defense would still have the league's lowest effective field goal percentage (48.9 percent, as compared to their actual 43.2 percent mark). Last season, the Clippers ranked ninth in that metric, and the season before they were 14th.
If the Clippers can pair a top-five defense with a top-five offense, the ESPN Basketball Power Index (BPI) projection of 63 wins -- which would be the most in franchise history -- is realistic. In that case, the Clippers should emerge as the top threat to the Warriors in the West.
BPI actually has the Clippers likely to finish ahead of Golden State, which is projected for 62 wins. I'm not ready to go that far given how well the Warriors have played when locked in even as they integrate Kevin Durant. With the Clippers blowing out the Spurs on Saturday for one of San Antonio's three home losses, a Clippers-Warriors conference finals might be the most likely scenario. Such a series might prove more competitive than expected before the season.
In fact, right now BPI projects the Clippers as the team most likely to win the West and most likely to win the NBA title. To make it their year, the Clippers might need only to play as well in May and June as they're playing in November -- if they can.