NBA Finals Game Seven Tidbits

Well that was some game last night.


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The Heat made a furious comeback in the final moments and pulled out an overtime victory to force a seventh game against the Spurs on Thursday night. It was the fourth time in NBA Finals history that a potential elimination game went into OT:

1957 Game 7: Celtics 125 Hawks 123 (2 OT)
1962 Game 7: Celtics 110 Lakers 107
1974 Game 6: Bucks 102 at Celtics 101 (2 OT)

The only one of the first three that was in Game Six was 1974. The Bucks staved off elimination in Boston, only to lose Game Seven at home.




The Spurs will look be just the fourth road team to win Game Seven of the NBA Finals. The others were the 1969 Celtics (at Lakers), 1974 Celtics (at Bucks) and 1978 Bullets (at Sonics).


Miami is the seventh team to play a seven-game series in both the Conference Finals and NBA Finals. The first six are 2-4 in the championship round, with the home team winning all six Finals Game Sevens:

Won Conference Finals in seven games, pushed to seven again in Finals

Year	Team	Conf Final Opp	Finals Opp	Game 7
1960	Hawks	Lakers	Celtics	Lost 122-103
1962	Celtics	Warriors	Lakers	Won 110-107 (OT)
1966	Lakers	Hawks	Celtics	Lost 95-93
1988	Lakers	Mavs	Pistons	Won 108-105
1994	Knicks	Pacers	Rockets	Lost 90-84
2005	Pistons	Heat	Spurs	Lost 81-74
2013	Heat	Pacers	Spurs	???

* Going back to the early days of the NBA, the 1951 Knicks beat the Syracuse Nationals 3-2 in a best-of-five Eastern Division Finals before falling in seven to the Rochester Royals. In 1954, the Lakers beat Rochester 2-1 in the Western Finals, then beat Syracuse in seven for the title.


The Spurs are just the third team to sweep their Conference Final opponent in four games before going the distance in the NBA Finals:

Swept Conference Finals, pushed to seven games in Finals

Year	Team	Conf Final Opp	Finals Opp	Game 7
1970	Lakers	Hawks	Knicks	Lost 113-99
1974	Bucks	Bulls	Celtics	Lost 102-87
2013	Spurs	Grizzlies	Heat	???

* Going back to the olden days once again, the 1954 Nationals beat the Celtics 2-0 to reach the finals before losing to the Lakers 4-3. Both 1957 Conference Finals were 3-0 sweeps (Celtics over Nationals, Hawks over Lakers). Boston beat the Hawks 4-3 to win their first championship, which I'm sure was a fluke.


Two weeks ago, I wrote about NBA Finals matchups between a team that played all seven games in its Conference Final and a team that had just swept theirs. This is the first of those meetings that has gone the full seven games. It did happen once in the Stanley Cup Finals. The 2003 Devils beat the Senators 4-3 to win the East and the Ducks swept the Wild to take the West. New Jersey then beat Anaheim 4-3 in a great series.


The Spurs certainly had their chance to win the championship last night, and now they're in a winner-take-all championship game as the visiting team. Across the NBA, NHL and MLB, here are how road teams have fared in this ultimate game:

NBA Finals: 3-14

Rk	Date	Tm		Opp	Result
1	2010-06-17	BOS	@	LAL	L 79-83
2	2005-06-23	DET	@	SAS	L 74-81
3	1994-06-22	NYK	@	HOU	L 84-90
4	1988-06-21	DET	@	LAL	L 105-108
5	1984-06-12	LAL	@	BOS	L 102-111
6	1978-06-07	WSB	@	SEA	W 105-99
7	1974-05-12	BOS	@	MIL	W 102-87
8	1970-05-08	LAL	@	NYK	L 99-113
9	1969-05-05	BOS	@	LAL	W 108-106
10	1966-04-28	LAL	@	BOS	L 93-95
11	1962-04-18	LAL	@	BOS	L 107-110 (OT)
12	1960-04-09	STL	@	BOS	L 103-122
13	1957-04-13	STL	@	BOS	L 123-125 (2OT)
14	1955-04-10	FTW	@	SYR	L 91-92
15	1954-04-12	SYR	@	MNL	L 80-87
16	1952-04-25	NYK	@	MNL	L 65-82
17	1951-04-21	NYK	@	ROC	L 75-79

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/19/2013.

Stanley Cup Finals: 4-12

Rk	Date	Tm		Opp	Result
1	2011-06-15	BOS	@	VAN	W 4-0
2	2009-06-12	PIT	@	DET	W 2-1
3	2006-06-19	EDM	@	CAR	L 1-3
4	2004-06-07	CGY	@	TBL	L 1-2
5	2003-06-09	MDA	@	NJD	L 0-3
6	2001-06-09	NJD	@	COL	L 1-3
7	1994-06-14	VAN	@	NYR	L 2-3
8	1987-05-31	PHI	@	EDM	L 1-3
9	1971-05-18	MTL	@	CBH	W 3-2
10	1965-05-01	CBH	@	MTL	L 0-4
11	1964-04-25	DET	@	TOR	L 0-4
12	1955-04-14	MTL	@	DET	L 1-3
13	1954-04-16	MTL	@	DET	L 1-2 (OT)
14	1950-04-23	NYR	@	DET	L 3-4 (2OT)
15	1945-04-22	TOR	@	DET	W 2-1
16	1942-04-18	DET	@	TOR	L 1-3

Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/19/2013.

World Series: 17-19

Rk	Date	Series	Gm#	Tm	Opp	Rslt
1	2011-10-28	WS	7	TEX	STL	L 2-6
2	2002-10-27	WS	7	SFG	ANA	L 1-4
3	2001-11-04	WS	7	NYY	ARI	L 2-3
4	1997-10-26	WS	7	CLE	FLA	L 2-3 (11)
5	1991-10-27	WS	7	ATL	MIN	L 0-1 (10)
6	1987-10-25	WS	7	STL	MIN	L 2-4
7	1986-10-27	WS	7	BOS	NYM	L 5-8
8	1985-10-27	WS	7	STL	KCR	L 0-11
9	1982-10-20	WS	7	MIL	STL	L 3-6
10	1979-10-17	WS	7	PIT	BAL	W 4-1
11	1975-10-22	WS	7	CIN	BOS	W 4-3
12	1973-10-21	WS	7	NYM	OAK	L 2-5
13	1972-10-22	WS	7	OAK	CIN	W 3-2
14	1971-10-17	WS	7	PIT	BAL	W 2-1
15	1968-10-10	WS	7	DET	STL	W 4-1
16	1967-10-12	WS	7	STL	BOS	W 7-2
17	1965-10-14	WS	7	LAD	MIN	W 2-0
18	1964-10-15	WS	7	NYY	STL	L 5-7
19	1962-10-16	WS	7	NYY	SFG	W 1-0
20	1960-10-13	WS	7	NYY	PIT	L 9-10
21	1958-10-09	WS	7	NYY	MLN	W 6-2
22	1957-10-10	WS	7	MLN	NYY	W 5-0
23	1956-10-10	WS	7	NYY	BRO	W 9-0
24	1955-10-04	WS	7	BRO	NYY	W 2-0
Rk	Date	Series	Gm#	Tm	Opp	Rslt
25	1952-10-07	WS	7	NYY	BRO	W 4-2
26	1947-10-06	WS	7	BRO	NYY	L 2-5
27	1946-10-15	WS	7	BOS	STL	L 3-4
28	1945-10-10	WS	7	DET	CHC	W 9-3
29	1940-10-08	WS	7	DET	CIN	L 1-2
30	1934-10-09	WS	7	STL	DET	W 11-0
31	1931-10-10	WS	7	PHA	STL	L 2-4
32	1926-10-10	WS	7	STL	NYY	W 3-2
33	1925-10-15	WS	7	WSH	PIT	L 7-9
34	1924-10-10	WS	7	NYG	WSH	L 3-4 (12)
35	1912-10-16	WS	8	NYG	BOS	L 2-3 (10)
36	1909-10-16	WS	7	PIT	DET	W 8-0

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/19/2013.

Road teams on these three lists are just 2-20 since 1980. They had lost 19 straight between the 1979 World Series and 2009 Stanley Cup, but the '09 Penguins and 2011 Bruins pulled upsets in Detroit and Vancouver, respectively.