A list of when the NBA championship winner was decided in the conference Finals, rather than the NBA Finals.
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The game of Basketball has been my passion since I was 5 years old. I grew up as a kid watching my dad’s recorded VHS tapes of playoff games through the 70s and 80s, and collected all the Basketball cards. Something about the game and what it represents just hooked me from a very young age.
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38 Comments
What series comes to mind for you?
forgot about the pacers vs pistons in 04-05
Johnny my boii !! Make a Video on Victor Wenbenyama and the history of the spurs base on their history of scouting and drafting international player that would be dope 💯😎
While not a conference final, the 2007 West semifinals between Phoenix and San Antonio basically decided the championship that year… both teams would have smoked Utah in the conference final and Cleveland in the Finals. Obviously Dallas and Detroit choked winnable series before either team could face the Spurs.
I notice you’ve been mentioning the 2009 Nuggets lately. One of my most enjoyable seasons as a Nuggets fan 😊😊
Also, one honorable mention should be the Spurs vs Suns in the 2007 Western semis. Even though it wasn’t the conference finals, with the Mavs having been knocked out early, no other teams in the West or the East were favored to win it all that year, this was considered the “real NBA Finals”
Seattle and Porland vs Jordan's Bulls.. wasn't interesting final
lol
SAC series is rigged as you said.
everthing related to Kobe is rigged too
Even his tragic death
pls search all celebrity deaths in tragic helicopters crashes
you will find the pattern
illuminatiii 😀
1998 ECF was a banger
The 1993 ECF between The Knicks and the Bulls is another one.
Spurs – Rockets 95 would fit in
The lakers were so inquired in 1971 honestly I think the bullets could have handled them
Lakers blazers in 2000
Lol @ 2009, narratives tripping over narratives….I guarantee that if that was [Redacted] instead of Dwight in that Finals the weakness of the East would be swept under the rug just like all the years after it…..nice save at the end too.
2003 WCF Spurs vs Mavericks
It's very telling 3 of these came in the 2000s and 2010s east
I actually think Orlando vs Denver in 09 would've been really close. Magic were a blown layup away & another tight game 4 away from being up 3-2 on the Lakers.
The Nuggets completely fell apart in game 6 that year. In hindsight it seems like the Nuggets had the more talented team, but L.A. was a machine with those bigs & the triangle under Phil.
27 f**king threes bro. That shit makes my blood boil TO THIS DAY🤬🤬
the list should include 1981 Celtics vs 76ers since the Rockets are in the losing season
I mean, while this is a great concept, you could always point to 2004 and 2016 as glaring examples of how the NBA Finals are only ever determined by the actual NBA Finals.
Rockets beat Cavs by an average of 18 but the playoff cavs is MUCH different than regular season.. after 2016 all they said was are the cavs in trouble, will they even make it to the finals with this effort? Honestly after 2016 the Cavs literally dragged ass through every regular season just enough to make a top 4 seed cuz they knew theyd turn it on and be in the finals.. i still agree GS or Houston wins but the regular season literally meant nothing to those cavs teams, gave little to no effort on a nightly basis.. also if not for JR and horrible calls in the 4th and OT to give KD free throw the cavs win game 1.. almost positive they lose the next 4 straight but that was pretty bad calls one after another late in the game to basically hand GS and KD game 1
2018 Cavaliers vs Rockets in the Finals would've been a lot closer tbh. They weren't as big of a matchup nightmare for LeBron's team and he'd be pretty capable of averaging 40 on Harden. Anyone watching that season could tell which player was better.
You forgot the 1981 Eastern conference finals between Larry Bird led Celtics and Julius Erving led Philadelphia. The Celtics won and got to play 42 win Rockets in the finals. Cedric Maxwell was the finals MVP but Bird got them through the Eastern conference finals in a series where only 9 points separated the two teams.
Idk about 2002 jon , I can see the Nets beating the Kings or atleast pushing them to 6 or 7
The 2021 championship was decided in the second round between the Nets and Bucks
The Bucks used to be in the Western conference?
how about the 2007? i think the last 4 Teams in the West could beat the Cavs that year..
'95 WCF between the Spurs and Rockets was a better series than the finals between Rockets and Magic! Hakeem took the mvp winning David Robinson 'to school' and the series went to 6 games, Rockets winning without home court advantage.
After that Hakeem's Rockets swept the Magic! Only the first game of the finals was an exciting one to be honest…After that it was the best player of the world at that time, Hakeem Olajuwon, taking what was his.
If you made the conference finals, then I say you’ve had at least a decent season for yourself.
Obviously if you are expected to win it all and it ends there, it can be viewed as a huge disappointment, and this isn’t to suggest that these teams are above criticism, but at the end of the day, you made the playoffs, and since the 70’s or so, won a playoff series when you got there, even if it was against someone we’d favor you to beat.
This also isn’t to suggest that teams who couldn’t make it that far didn’t have good seasons in their own ways (ex: the Kings couldn’t do that, and they can say they ended their playoff drought this year)
What about 1990 ECF Between Pistons and Bulls,which went upto game 7
2021 ECSF Bucks vs Nets I believe decided the NBA championship right there and then for that season
I would take the '09 season away and throw in the 2000 WCF between Portland and LA..
2002 wcf was so lit
Didn't Jerry West also play against the Bucks that year?
Almost every west finals since Duncan won his first for two decades
I believe 09 Magic would’ve won the series Vs. Denver
Harden Would Have Choked Against A 2018 Lebron Let’s Be Honest
2000-02 the WCFs was basically the nba finals that’s why when ppl look at Shaq numbers in the finals and say he carried Kobe it’s just wrong 😂😂Shaq was a beast but the teams in the east couldn’t match them
How about the 2012 ECF BOS vs MIA