The NBA's 12 Worst Second-Half Collapses of All Time

The NBA differs from the MLB and NFL in that over half the teams in the league make the playoffs. Because of this, a team can come out with a hot start and then stagger the rest of the way through the season starting in say, January, and still make the playoffs. In baseball, just eight teams (10 starting this year) get into the postseason, while the NFL allows only 12. 

An NBA collapse—I'm talking about a complete collapse from playoff contender to watching from the sidelines in April—is rare, but not impossible.

Usually, you will see it happen because of an injury to a team, a coaching switch with unexpected consequences or a player getting traded away. Any one of these changes can lead to all of the glue melting and the team coming apart at the seams.

There are also more subtle ways to turn a successful season into a disappointment, like a team's immaturity or a single player's will to be larger than life. 

I'm guessing that not many of these types of seasons readily come to mind, but they are out there.

I've got 12 of the biggest ones right here for your viewing pleasure.

12. 1969-70 San Francisco Warriors

Record Before All-Star Break: 21-27

Record After All-Star Break: 9-25

The San Francisco Warriors was a team in flux in the late '60s. After losing in the NBA Finals to a Philadelphia 76ers team led by Wilt Chamberlain, they lost their new franchise player, Rick Barry, to the ABA.

The years following were a bit of a downward spiral, culminating in a collapse for the ages in 1970.  

The Warriors started off on a decent pace, below .500, but were by no means out of the playoff race by the time the All-Star break rolled around. After all, they had a good core of Jeff Mullins, Nate Thurmond, Jerry Lucas and Jim King, all playing in and around their prime. They still had plenty of time for a run.

Unfortunately, the slow start frustrated the front office, and the team fired George Lee, their head coach, after a 1-3 start after the break.

Al Attles, the team's aging point guard, took over and would see the team win just eight more games all season long, finishing with a record of 30-52.

11. 1988-89 Portland Trail Blazers

Record Before All-Star Break: 25-21

Record After All-Star Break: 14-22

The late-'80s Portland Trail Blazers, under the guise of Clyde Drexler, were always a dangerous team, but in 1989, dangerous turned into inept.

The Blazers were on a nice pace, but after winning 49 and 53 games in the previous two years, it was somewhat slower than expected. Because of that, they fired Mike Schuler just one game after the All-Star break and put Rick Adelman in charge.

Adelman saw the team win just 14 games under his tutelage, and while the team snuck into the playoffs with an overtime win on the final of the season, the damage from the second half was done, and they were swept by the Lakers in the first round.

10. 1989-90 Golden State Warriors

Record Before All-Star Break: 23-24

Record After All-Star Break: 14-21

With Chris Mullin rocking a flat-top, a rookie Tim Hardaway, a sophomore Mitch Richmond and, of course, the tallest men from Germany (Uwe Blab) and Sudan (Manute Bol), what could go wrong?

The second half of the season, that's what.

The 1990 Warriors started out with a decent shot to make the playoffs, but that turned into no chance at all once the All-Star break came and went. The second half brought with it just 14 wins, giving them a 37-45 record after a promising start to Run TMC.

9. 2001-02 Phoenix Suns

Record Before All-Star Break: 24-24

Record After All-Star Break: 12-22

Who would have thought that a team with Stephon Marbury as their centerpiece would have had a volatile season? 

Phoenix rolled out a fine start with a 24-24 record that put them in place to make a run at the playoffs.

Unfortunately, the Suns weren't happy with a team that had made the playoffs for the past two years treading water at the midway point of the season. Three games after the All-Star break, Scott Skiles was fired and Frank Johnson took over as head coach, winning just 11 games after taking over. 

What once started as a decent season quickly turned into an exercise in futility. The Suns finished 36-46 with just 12 wins after the break.

8. 2004-05 Cleveland Cavaliers

Record Before All-Star Break: 30-21

Record After All-Star Break: 12-19

In 2004, the Cavaliers were embarking on their second season with LeBron James in town and playing well under head coach Paul Silas. At the All-Star break, Cleveland had a great shot to make the playoffs.

However, the new ownership under Dan Gilbert wanted to implement their own guys before the season ended, so they fired Silas and handed the team over to Brendan Malone for the remainder of the season. That proved to be the team's undoing. 

Cleveland went just 8-10 under Malone, and a New Jersey Nets victory over the Boston Celtics kept the Cavs out of the playoffs because of a tiebreaker.

7. 1991-92 Phoenix Suns

Record Before All-Star Break: 23-24

Record After All-Star Break: 12-23

Ah yes, the ever-moody Charles Barkley and the inevitable collapse of the Philadelphia 76ers under his weight. I would be remiss not to include the Round Mound's team in this one.

This Sixers team wasn't going to be anything special, but they were at least going to have a shot at the playoffs. This was, after all, the season that broke the camel's back in Philly, leading to Chuck getting shipped out to Phoenix.

Philadelphia started out fine, albeit a win away from .500 at the half, but they completely fell apart in the second half.

With just 12 wins after the All-Star break, the 76ers finished the 1992 campaign with just 35 wins after winning at least 44 over the past three seasons.

Interesting note: This is one of two teams to collapse in the second half and employ Manute Bol. Coincidence? Probably.

6. 2010-11 Utah Jazz

Record Before All-Star Break: 31-26

Record After All-Star Break: 8-17

It's hard to fault a single person, or anybody for that matter, for the demise of the Utah Jazz last season. A regime change was in the works, and when regimes change, there are bound to be some bumps along the way.

To start things off, Jerry Sloan was unceremoniously discharged just a few games before the All-Star break, which could have crippled the team in its own right. Then, much to everyone's surprise, the team traded Deron Williams before the trading deadline. 

If losing a long-time head coach and a franchise player wouldn't screw a team up, then I don't know what would.

After a decent start to the season that should have ended with a low playoff seed in the West, Utah fell apart and won just eight games after the break, finishing with a record of 39-43.

5. 1982-83 Dallas Mavericks

Record Before All-Star Break: 26-23

Record After All-Star Break: 12-21

The Dallas Mavericks were dangerously close to making the playoffs in what was just their third year of existence.

Under the young Mark Aguirre, the up-and-coming Rolando Blackman and Rookie of the Year Terry Cummings, the Mavericks looked like they had a certain date with the playoffs at the break. But then, things just kind of fizzled.

Even though the guys populating their bench had some of the coolest names you could ever ask for (Elston Turner, Jim Spanarkel, Kurt Nimphius, Corny Thompson), the Mavs won just 12 games over the second half, leaving them a handful of games out of the playoffs.

4. 1976-77 Phoenix Suns

Record Before All-Star Break: 25-27

Record After All-Star Break: 9-21

The Paul Westphal-Alvan Adams Phoenix Suns weren't the flashiest team, but they did have something that made them tick over the first half of the season. 

This Suns team wasn't setting the world on fire, but they were still a dangerous, possibly playoff-bound team at the break.

They had a few good young players and had a pretty cool Van Arsdale combo going on with both Tom and Dick on their squad. 

However, the team after the All-Star break did not perform like the team before the All-Star break, winning just nine games and finishing with a record of 34-48.

3. 2004-05 Orlando Magic

Record Before All-Star Break: 28-24

Record After All-Star Break: 8-22

By all means, the Orlando Magic probably should have made the playoffs in their first year with Dwight Howard wearing blue and white.

With Stevie Franchise leading the team and Grant Hill wobbling around, Orlando was able to run out to a 28-24 start, which should have put them in prime position to grab a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

However, the team began to fall apart, and on the heels of a six-game losing streak late in the season. As a result, the Magic fired Johnny Davi and handed the team over to Chris Jent.

Unfortunately, Jent couldn't do much to bail the water out of this already-sinking ship and led the team to just five wins over their final 18 games.

The Magic finished 10th in the East, while the eighth seed, New Jersey, ended up with a 42-40 record that Orlando would have easily eclipsed had they kept their first-half pace going. 

2. 2004-05 Los Angeles Lakers

Record Before All-Star Break: 26-24

Record After All-Star Break: 8-24

Many remember this as the year that the Los Angeles Lakers missed the playoffs. Some simply remember it as a year in which they played Slava Medvedenko nearly 10 minutes a game and even started Luke Walton a handful of times. 

Phil Jackson was gone, Shaq had just been traded and Kobe Bryant was in the middle of his "It's all about me" phase, which led the team down a dark path.

Rudy Tomjanovich started the season 24-19, but decided to step down leading to the reign of legendary Frank Hamblen. The team won just 10 more games under Hamblen and ended up in the 11th spot in the West.

1. 2006-07 Minnesota Timberwolves

Record Before All-Star Break: 25-27

Record After All-Star Break: 7-23

In what would be their last season with Kevin Garnett leading their team, the Minnesota Timberwolves seemed to have had a nervous breakdown during the second half of the season.

Garnett was his usual dominant self, but a supporting cast, including players like Ricky Davis and Mark Blount, was not cutting it. You could make the argument that nobody on this team other than KG was better than a fourth option on any playoff-bound team.

The T-Wolves got out to a 20-20 start before firing head coach Dwane Casey, leaving Randy Wittman to take over—and take over he did.

They started off 5-7 under Wittman prior to the All-Star break, which wasn't promising, but wasn't terrible either. 

Unfortunately, the team would win just seven more games and finish 32-50 in their last year with one of the greatest power forwards ever. 

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