Every NBA team's most famous playoff moment

After a tough start to the season, Nate McMillan took over as coach of the Hawks and closed out the regular season with a 27-11 record. The team continued to surprise in the postseason thanks to some massive performances from Trae Young. That helped Atlanta beat the favored 76ers in seven games before challenging the defending champion Bucks in a six-game Conference Finals series.

The Celtics won a lot in the '80s, but none of their victories were as dramatic as this game against the Pistons. The Celtics were down by one with seconds left when Larry Bird famously stole a Detroit inbounds pass, then quickly found a cutting Johnson for a game-winning layup. Boston went on to win the series and advance to the Finals.

Brooklyn's most memorable postseason moment, unfortunately, isn't a positive one, but it nearly was. Near the end of regulation, Kevin Durant hit a tightly contested long-range shot that would have won the game had it been a three-pointer. But Durant's foot was just barely on the line, so the game went to overtime, where the Nets lost the game and the series.

The relatively young Hornets franchise doesn't have much experience with deep postseason runs. Kemba Walker led them to one of their best-ever seasons in 2016, though, securing 48 wins to face the post-LeBron Heat in the first round. After falling behind 2-0, the Hornets made a valiant effort to force a seven-game series, most notably with Courtney Lee's clutch shot in Game 6 that extended the series, which they ultimately lost.

Few players have more iconic NBA moments than MJ. His defining one came at the very end of it (before the Wizards years, anyway), in the 1998 Finals. With 5.2 seconds remaining, Jordan hit a pull-up jumper over Bryon Russell, a make that became known as "The Last Shot" and the signature play of his career.

The Cavaliers and Warriors dominated the 2010s, and the 2016 Finals in particular were one of the most exciting championship series in league history. LeBron and the Cavs fell behind 3-1, but became the first team in NBA history to win the title after going down 3-1. The series also featured perhaps the biggest moment of LeBron's career: his chase-down block on Andre Iguodala.

The Mavs were consistently great for most of Dirk's time in Dallas, but for a while, he just couldn't get the team over the hump. Then came 2011, when they faced the Heat superteam in the Finals. Nowitzki showed up, though, logging 26 points a night in the six-game series to give the Mavericks their first title in franchise history.

Nikola Jokić was already on his way to being recognized as one of the best NBA players ever in 2023, having won the MVP trophy the previous two seasons. He needed a title to really help cement his legacy, though, and that came in 2023. His Nuggets dismantled the Heat in five games, thanks to a 41-point night and two triple-doubles from Jokić.

The Pistons pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of the league when they beat the Lakers in the Finals. Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton weren't enough to stop Detroit, or really to even put up much of a fight, as the Pistons won in five games. For Detroit, this was their first title since the "Bad Boys" teams of the '80s and '90s.

The Warriors franchise seems inevitable now, but for the first few years of Stephen Curry's career, the team was just trying to win one championship. That finally came in 2015, when they beat the Cavaliers for their first title since 1975. Andre Iguodala came up big in the series, especially after being inserted into the starting lineup midway through, and took home the Finals MVP trophy for his efforts.

Despite winning the championship in 1994, the Rockets were not favored in 1995. Entering the postseason as the 6th seed, they reached the Finals after toppling the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, and San Antonio Spurs. After defeating the Magic in the Finals, the Rockets became the lowest-seeded team to ever win a championship.

Reggie Miller had plenty of clutch moments in his career, but none were bigger than that one game against New York in the 1995 playoffs. With his team down, Miller scored eight points in a nine-second stretch. The Pacers came back to win 107-105, and Miller's legacy as a top-tier clutch performer was cemented.

The Clippers famously have a bunch of dreadful seasons in the books, but the franchise hit a high point in the early 2020s. In '21, they reached the Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. They lost Kawhi Leonard to injury in the previous round, but Paul George and the rest of the team still put up a fight and lost to Phoenix in six games.

The other LA team, meanwhile, has been slightly more successful, to grossly understate it. The Lakers have a bunch of titles to their name, many of them coming during the '80s. In the 1987 Finals, Magic Johnson hit one of the most famous shots in franchise history, his "baby hook" across the lane, giving the Lakers a 3-1 series lead over the Celtics.

The Spurs were the top seed in 2011, but the Grizzlies managed to beat them in six games. It was a major upset, considering Memphis just snuck into the playoffs as the 8 seed. The big-man duo of Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol powered the team, both in this series and in a tough loss in seven games against the Thunder in the next round.

Ray Allen hit perhaps the biggest single shot in Miami Heat history in the 2015 Finals. LeBron James missed a three-pointer, Chris Bosh got the offensive rebound, and kicked it out to a backpedaling Allen, who got behind the three-point line in the corner, rose up, and drained the shot to send the game into overtime. Miami won that game and then emerged victorious in the next one, winning the championship.

The Bucks hadn't won a title since Lew Alcindor led them to one in 1971. That changed in 2021 when Milwaukee beat the Suns in six games to secure the championship. This was thanks to an all-time great Finals performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had 50 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks in the closeout game.

The Timberwolves didn't have a lot of postseason success during Kevin Garnett's time there, but that changed for once in 2004. Coming off a season where Garnett was named the league MVP, Minnesota's star powered them to the Conference Finals. It took a huge Game 7 performance from KG in the previous round to get there, as he put up 32 points and 21 rebounds.

Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins were an awesome double-big duo until Cousins suffered a season-ending injury. This limited New Orleans' ceiling, but they still had a surprising first-round playoff run. A team led by Davis and Jrue Holiday swept Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers, an impressive performance by a shorthanded team.

While the Knicks didn't win the title in 1999, they still had one of the most surprising postseason runs ever. They entered the playoffs as the No. 8 seed, and round after round, they just kept winning. Patrick Ewing and company were the first-ever 8 seed to reach the Finals, and even though they lost to the Spurs, it was still an amazing stretch for New York.

A young Oklahoma City team had a breakout run in the 2012 playoffs. Most notably, they made the Finals for the first time since relocating from Seattle. After coming back from going down 2-0 against the Spurs in the Conference Finals, they lost to the Heat in the Finals despite strong play from the core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden.

It didn't take that long for the Orlando Magic to get good: They joined the NBA as an expansion franchise in 1989 and they made their first Finals appearance in 1995. The star duo of Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee Hardaway got them there, but missed free throws by Nick Anderson in Game 1 let the Rockets take the first game, giving them momentum to go on and sweep the series.

The 2001 76ers had very little offensive firepower beyond Allen Iverson, but his offensive contributions were somehow enough to get Philadelphia to the Finals. They ran into the Lakers, who swept the previous three rounds. They won the championship, too, but not in a sweep: In Game 1, Iverson put up 48 points to power Philly to an overtime win.

It's hard to put anything above Game 5 as the greatest game in Finals history. The Suns and Celtics couldn't decide things in regulation, so the game went into overtime, and then it did so two more times. The Celtics won 128-126 in triple-overtime, but it was, regardless, one of the most memorable games in Suns history.

The Blazers have one NBA championship to their name, and it came in 1977. At first, it looked like it wouldn't happen when they went down 2-0 against the 76ers. But thanks to stellar play from eventual Finals MVP Bill Walton, they came back to win the next four games.

This is one of the most infamous playoff series in NBA history. The Kings went up 3-2 over the Lakers, but Game 6 became notorious for officiating that seemed to favor Los Angeles. The Lakers won that game and went on to take Game 7 to win the series, and many felt the core of Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, and Peja Stojaković was robbed of a trip to the Finals.

The Spurs were in a transitional era in 2014: The veteran core of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginóbili was getting older, while a younger player named Kawhi Leonard was showing a ton of promise. After losing to Miami in the 2013 Finals, they had a shot at redemption in 2014 when they met them there again. They got their revenge thanks to a breakout series from Leonard, who was named Finals MVP.

The Raptors won the championship in 2019, but the most enduring moment from that postseason came a couple of rounds earlier. With seconds remaining, Leonard dribbled to the corner and put up a contested jumper, which bounced around the rim multiple times before finally going in and winning Toronto the game and series. The suspenseful way the shot unfolded instantly made it one of the most iconic game-winners in NBA history.

The Jazz had bad luck in the '90s: They were one of the decade's best teams, but they faced Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls on two trips to the Finals. 1997 was the franchise's first Finals appearance, and Karl Malone and John Stockton made it a competitive six-game series. While the Bulls ended up winning it all, Utah's first Finals trip is nonetheless a milestone moment in the franchise's history.

In the modern era, the Wizards don't exactly have an association with winning. They were good in the '70s, though, and the Bullets claimed the franchise's first and only title in 1978. It took seven games to do it, but stellar play from Finals MVP Wes Unseld helped get them over the finish line.