The best NBA teams to lose in the conference finals

Decades before the Golden State Warriors became the subject of jokes, the Philadelphia 76ers made history by becoming the first NBA side to blow a 3-1 postseason lead, per Sports-Reference . The Sixers downed the Boston Celtics in three of the first four contests of the 1968 Eastern Conference Finals, but Wilt Chamberlain missed 28 of 48 attempts from the charity stripe over the last three games of the series. Boston won Game 6, 114-106, and the Celtics took Game 7, 100-96. Boston defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. 

Roughly 50 years after the 1971-72 Milwaukee Bucks fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, some still view that Bucks side as the greatest to not win a championship, let alone lose in a conference finals series. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob Dandridge and a version of Oscar Robertson past his prime met up with a Lakers lineup featuring Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Jim McMillian, and Gail Goodrich. The Lakers, simply put, were too much for Milwaukee to handle, winning the series in six before downing the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. 

The 1972-73 Boston Celtics won 68 regular-season contests, a mark that remains a franchise best to this day, according to Land of Basketball. New York Knicks stars Walt "Clyde" Frazier, Willis Reed, Earl Monroe, Dave DeBusschere and others weren't intimidated. The Knicks took Games 2, 3 and 4 and then the series finale to clinch a showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. New York won in five, and Game 5 was the last of Wilt Chamberlain's Hall of Fame career. 

Fans of the Philadelphia 76ers may cringe whenever their favorite side has a 3-1 Eastern Conference Finals lead over the Boston Celtics in the future. In 1981 both Julius Erving and Andrew Toney averaged over 19 PPG across an entire series that went seven games after the Sixers took three of the first four. Just as what occurred in 1968, however, Boston refused to be denied, winning single-score affairs in each of the last three contests. The Celtics defeated the Houston Rockets to win the title. 

The Boston Celtics entered the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals with the best record in basketball, with Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Cedric Maxwell, Kevin McHale and "Tiny" Archibald leading the charge toward a title. This time, however, the Philadelphia 76ers gained revenge by beating the Celtics in Game 7, played in Boston, to qualify for the NBA Finals. With the outcome of the series decided, the Boston faithful chanted " Beat L.A." toward the opposition, perhaps in an attempt to will the Sixers to a title and victory over the hated Lakers. It didn't work, as Los Angeles beat Philly in six. 

The Los Angeles Lakers began the 1985-86 season as defending champions, and the "Showtime" crew seemed a relatively easy four wins over the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals away from another title-series showdown with the Boston Celtics. Not so fast, my friends, as the "Twin Towers" of Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson led the Rockets to a "gentleman's sweep" after dropping the first game of the series. That duo wasn't enough to overcome the Celtics in the NBA Finals, though, as Boston won in six and Larry Bird was named MVP. 

After going 2-2 in the NBA Finals from 1984 through 1987, the dynastic run of the Boston Celtics appeared strong at the start of the club's 1988 Eastern Conference Finals series against the Detroit Pistons. Boston's rule over the East ended for 20 years that spring, and Detroit's "Bad Boys" took the keys to the kingdom for the next three seasons. This was only the start of the Pistons toppling current and future Association legends. 

His Airness goes back-to-back over the next two portions of the piece. The Detroit Pistons' "Jordan Rules" method of defending Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan didn't prevent MJ from averaging nearly 30 points per contest in the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals, per Basketball-Reference , but Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman and the rest of the Pistons were the better playoff-ready side across six games. Detroit went on to sweep the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.  

The 1990 Eastern Conference Finals are significant because they represent the end of an era. Once again the Detroit Pistons defeated Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, this time in seven games, to return to and win the NBA Finals. That was the last time Jordan and the Bulls lost a playoff series during seasons in which His Airness didn't play any other professional sport. 

As it pertains only to regular-season records , no Portland Trail Blazers roster was better than the 1990-91 squad that notched 63 victories. While Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, Kevin Duckworth and others all played for the Trail Blazers in the '92 NBA Finals, Portland failed to get past the Los Angeles Lakers in the '91 Western Conference Finals. Just like Portland, a year later, the Lakers, including James Worthy, Magic Johnson, Vlade Divac, were no match for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls on the Association's biggest stage. 

Despite what some would lead you to believe, the Cleveland Cavaliers did not, in fact, begin with LeBron James and the 2000s. Mark Price, Larry Nance, Brad Daugherty, Craig Ehlo and the rest of the Cavs had Cleveland fans dreaming of an upset during the 1992 Eastern Conference Finals, but Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls weren't ready to be on the wrong side of history. Nevertheless, this plucky and entertaining Cleveland side receives a shoutout here. 

This famous Orlando Magic team with Shaquille O'Neal, Penny Hardaway, Dennis Scott and Horace Grant probably deserved to play in an NBA Finals — except that they came across a somewhat-known Chicago Bulls side that won 72 regular-season games. Sports, like life, often aren't fair. With Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, the Chicago roster that is probably the best ever assembled swept the Magic and then beat the Seattle SuperSonics in the NBA Finals. 

The Los Angeles Lakers swept every opponent en route to the 2001 NBA Finals, and the San Antonio Spurs weren't immune to such a thrashing. Those Spurs started the playoffs with the best record in the league, and the duo of Tim Duncan and David Robinson, along with plenty of depth, seemed up to the challenge of facing the Lakers. However, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal simply weren't losing to anybody that spring, and Los Angeles won a second of three straight titles. 

Per Basketball-Reference , no Indiana Pacers team won more regular-season games than the 2003-04 squad that tallied 61 victories. The Pacers picked up wins in eight of their first 10 playoff appearances, and players such as Jermaine O'Neal, Ron Artest and Reggie Miller in the twilight of his career could probably taste the NBA Finals ahead of the opening tip vs. the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. After losing the '03 series to the New Jersey Nets, Detroit beat the Pacers in six before downing the Los Angeles Lakers in five for all the marbles. 

After defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals, the Detroit Pistons returned to the championship series the following year and to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2006. The duo of Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal ensured the Miami Heat and not the Pistons would represent the East that spring, as Miami won Game 1 and each of its home contests to beat the two-time conference champs in six. Miami then beat the Dallas Mavericks in six to claim the Association crown. 

The Detroit Pistons completed a sixth consecutive trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in May 2007, where they encountered a young man named LeBron James. He who would become King led all scorers, averaging over 25 PPG as the Cleveland Cavaliers advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. After getting swept by the San Antonio Spurs, the Cavs failed to return to the Finals until 2015. 

It's funny to think Cleveland Cavaliers fans believed the 2008-09 Cavs, the side that finished the regular season atop the overall league standings, would be the best in franchise history only a decade ago. How quickly things change. Try as he might, LeBron James could not carry the No. 1 seed past the Orlando Magic and into the Finals, and it would be the closest Cleveland would come to winning a title until the King took his talents back to Northeast Ohio in the summer of 2014. 

The 2010-11 Chicago Bulls were the best anybody had seen from the franchise since the days of Michael Jordan, a team with the Association's best record , the league MVP in Derrick Rose and the Coach of the Year in Tom Thibodeau. As good as those Bulls were, the trio of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade wasn't letting the Miami Heat miss the NBA Finals. The Heat won Games 2 through 5 to bounce the Bulls from the postseason, but Miami couldn't take the Dallas Mavericks down in June. 

At the start of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, the battle-tested Boston Celtics, with Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, were the last line of defense to prevent the Miami Heat from sparking an NBA reign of terror. Boston fought valiantly, rallying from an 0-2 deficit to win three straight before dropping the final two games of the series. King James and his men cruised to a first of two championships with a 4-1 drubbing of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals. 

At a different time and during a different playoff series, the 2014-15 Houston Rockets led by James Harden could've qualified for and won the NBA Finals. According to Land of Basketball, Houston's 56 regular-season wins were the third most in franchise history at the time. Unfortunately for Harden and the Rockets, they met the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Houston fought hard and managed to win Game 4, but that was the club's lone victory in the series. 

It's the blown 3-1 series lead that altered the Association throughout the second half of the 2010s. The duo of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook propelled the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 3-1 lead over the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Western Conference Finals, but OKC choked across three straight contests and gifted the Warriors with a second straight trip to the NBA Finals. The Warriors wasted a 3-1 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals, Durant joined Golden State the following July and the rest, as the saying goes, is history. 

Yes, the Boston Celtics without injured stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving in the lineup almost certainly would've fallen to the Golden State Warriors in the 2018 NBA Finals. In reality, Golden State would've swept the series. Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum and Al Horford guided the Celts to a 3-2 conference finals lead over LeBron James and the lackluster Cleveland Cavaliers, but Boston dropped games in Cleveland and the last at home to fall shy of the Finals. It now seems Boston will press the figurative reset button following the 2019 postseason. 

The Houston Rockets were a road win over the Golden State Warriors from clinching a berth in the 2018 NBA Finals, and it's possible, if not likely, Houston would've defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the title. Without an injured Chris Paul in the lineup for Game 6, Houston squandered a 17-point, first-quarter advantage, and the Warriors held serve at home before eliminating the Rockets in Game 7 and, ultimately, winning a third championship in four seasons. 

Pockets of New York Knicks fans may believe their side was undone by Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan and Co. receiving alleged beneficial decisions made by the referees in Game 5 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals. The Knicks, featuring the likes of Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason and others, jumped out to a 2-0 series lead before Chicago stormed back to even things. Then New York's Charles Smith was denied at the rim multiple times late in Game 5, a defensive sequence that secured a road victory for the Bulls. Chicago closed out New York at home the next contest. 

Game 6. The two words that haunt fans of the Sacramento Kings 17 years after the fact. Sacramento was a win away from clinching a spot in the NBA Finals, but the Los Angeles Lakers rallied back and won the thrilling postseason encounter, in part because of some questionable officiating. As Chris Sheridan wrote for ESPN in 2008, referee Tim Donaghy later claimed that contest was fixed. It's a topic that comes up every postseason whenever a set of fans feel the basketball gods and maybe the refs are against them.