Then San Antonio won a gut-check Game 5 to take a 3–2 series back home. LeBron, after falling short of a championship with his no-show performance in the 2011 NBA Finals, was facing insurmountable, must-win expectations. It was the opening to what was a broadway play disguised as a basketball series. Larry Bird hit the game-winning jumper with 1:03 left. After sweeping Atlanta and Cleveland in the first two rounds, Chicago entered the Eastern Conference Finals wondering if any team could match their competitive fire, much less make them sweat. They also came right before the league’s 3-point boom. And so, by 1987, the Pistons felt it was their time. This year, though, the Knicks were different, carrying themselves like the 60-win team they were, a team that could seriously challenge Chicago. The Rockets can’t get over the hump, James Harden’s playoff struggles, blah blah blah. It’s hard to compare them to other teams later in the decade.Okay, okay. Over the previous three postseasons, the Bulls had won ten-straight series. Just when you thought the Clippers were about to fold, they gutted out a win on the road in Game 4. The Knicks and Bulls played one more game in that series, but the season really ended in that final 30 seconds.This series was a gift from the basketball gods. They had an MVP, won 65 games and pushed the best roster ever to seven games. Only once before — against these Knicks, in 1992 — had Chicago faced adversity. With one minute remaining in the game, tied 107–107, the two players with most on the line — CP3 and Duncan — relished in the spotlight. Now, LeBron James had already won a title, as had Dwyane Wade (2) and Chris Bosh. These Cavaliers fired a coach with a 30-11 record midseason, This team’s 27 game winning streak on their way to 66 wins on the season is the second longest streak in NBA history. The 10 Best NBA Playoff Series of the Decade. In hindsight, this series started it all; it was the dawn of the Bird era and the Celtics’ decade of dominance, while laying the seeds to the greatest rivalry of all-time — Bird’s Celtics vs. Magic’s Lakers — which birthed the NBA as we know it. This was the best basketball series of all time. In a Game 7, everything is on the …

Game 5 was capped off by a game-winner from Mike Bibby, before the Lakers forced a seventh game. During the second half, Bill Laimbeer took a shot at Bird, which prompted Basketball Jesus to explode unlike we’d ever seen. The bottom line is they won 67 games with a league MVP in Stephen Curry and a spectacular defense. Somehow, Knicks-Pacers II is a rare case of the sequel topping the original. Over this period, they only played in two Game 7s: the 1992 Eastern Conference Semifinals (vs. New York) and the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals (vs. Indiana). Their 9.1 net rating was tops in the league, they had four future Hall of Famers and a bunch of scrappy role players that moved the ball and defended at a top notch level. Except they didn’t. The Celtics had won the Eastern Conference three-straight times, with three NBA titles to boot. After a tough win by Detroit sent the series to Game 7, Boston worked their magic back home. In Game 6, with a chance to dethrone the Warriors, the Thunder held an eight-point lead at the start of the fourth. But, pound for pound, they only had a single All-Star in Dirk Nowitzki. In frustration, Bird threw the ball at Laimbeer’s head.

The Lakers were trying to three-peat, but it looked like Vlade Divac, Chris Webber, and Mike Bibby just might lead the Kings past their rivals with the advantage of playing Game 7 at home. In what is arguably the greatest play in NBA history, Bird, with the Celtics trailing in the waning seconds, stole Isiah Thomas’ inbounds pass, threw it underneath to Dennis Johnson, and, just like that, the Pistons had choked, and the Celtics escaped with an unfathomable win. It felt like the NBA Finals, and, really, it was. While the Celtics were the class of the East, with their star, Larry Bird, the face of ‘basketball nirvana’, the Pistons were afterthoughts, a team with a chip on its shoulder, vilified by their bully-ball tactics and cocky demeanor. Though they weren’t at the peak of their powers just yet, they were still spectacular in a lockout shortened season where they won 46 of 66 games. Then in one of the most memorable collapses in playoff history, the Blazers missed 13 consecutive field goals, paving the way for a Laker rally and the iconic Kobe to Shaq oop that sealed the deal and started a dynasty.In 1993, with Michael Jordan at his absolute apex, the Bulls looked to become the third team in NBA history, and the first since the ’60s Celtics, to three-peat. They’d hold serve in the first two games, highlighted by John Starks’ exclamation-point dunk over Grant and Jordan in Game 2. With 30 seconds remaining, Ginobli hit a 3-pointer to give the Spurs a three-point lead; then Dirk happened. His acrobatic, and-one layup forced overtime, where the Mavs outscored the Spurs 15–7, en route to the Western Conference Finals.Four years into his Lakers tenure, Shaq’s regular season dominance hadn’t led to playoff success. After the Pacers took a 3–1 lead, Ewing helped the Knicks stave off elimination with a buzzer-beater in Game 5, before dropping 25 and 15 on the road in Game 6 to send the series back to the Garden. But the Pacers answered with another nail-biter, winning 92–89 to force a Game 7 in Chicago. Only the 1971-72 Lakers’ 33-game streak is longer. After a convincing win by Miami in Game 1, the series produced its first classic in Game 2, an overtime thriller highlighted by Rondo’s 44–10–8, Ray Allen’s game-tying 3-pointer with 30 seconds left, and LeBron’s miss at the buzzer. Paul gave the Clippers a two-point lead with 13 seconds to go; on the next possession, Duncan tied the game with two clutch free throws. This team’s 27 game winning streak on their way to 66 wins on the season is the second longest streak in NBA history.… Kevin Johnson’s 46 and 10 carried the Suns to a ten-point lead, before Houston built on their clutch reputation in must-win games, as Mario Ellie sank a back-breaking, series-sealing 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining.No series on this list had similar stakes. These Lakers were a great team — they won 57 games and were a repeat champion.


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