NBA Finals: 15-Point Win After a 15-Point Loss

UPDATE: After obviously reading this and posting it in the locker room, the Miami Heat took Game Four 109-93 to even the series at 2-2. The 16-point win is an answer the Spurs 36-point win of an answer to the Heat's 19-point win in Game Two. So I guess you can add this series to the list once again. It's the first time in NBA Finals history that the two teams have had alternating 15-point margins in three consecutive games. The chart below has been updated.


Two nights after the Miami Heat rolled to a 103-84 victory to even up the NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs bludgeoned the Heat 113-77 to take a 2-1 series lead. It was a historic rout as the Spurs drained 16 three-pointers to set a Finals record in the championship round's third-biggest blowout ever (+36)*.

* The widest margin of victory was in Game Three of the 1998 Finals, when the Bulls beat the Jazz 96-54 (+42). Utah's point total was the lowest by any team in any game since the inception of the shot clock in 1954-55. That mark has been topped (bottomed?) twice in the regular season by the 1999 Bulls (49) and 2002 Nuggets (53). The second-biggest margin was in Game Six of the 2008 Finals, with the Celtics clinching the title with a 131-92 win over the Lakers (+39).

It also marked the seventh time in NBA Finals history that a team answered a 15+ point defeat with a 15+ point victory in the next game. As it did in four of the first six cases, the dueling drubbings occurred in Games Two and Three of the series.

						Differences
Game	Date ▴	Tm		Opp	Result	PTS
2	1964-04-20	BOS		SFW	W 124-101	+23
3	1964-04-22	SFW		BOS	W 115-91	+24
2	1977-05-26	PHI		POR	W 107-89	+18
3	1977-05-29	POR		PHI	W 129-107	+22
2	1982-05-30	PHI		LAL	W 110-94	+16
3	1982-06-01	LAL		PHI	W 129-108	+21
5	1986-06-05	HOU		BOS	W 111-96	+15
6	1986-06-08	BOS		HOU	W 114-97	+17
3	1996-06-09	CHI	@	SEA	W 108-86	+22
4	1996-06-12	SEA		CHI	W 107-86	+21
2	2005-06-12	SAS		DET	W 97-76	+21
3	2005-06-14	DET		SAS	W 96-79	+17
2	2013-06-09	MIA		SAS	W 103-84	+19
3	2013-06-11	SAS		MIA	W 113-77	+36
4	2013-06-13	MIA	@	SAS	W 109-93	+16

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/14/2013.

1964, 1996 and 2013 are the only years in which both victories were by 19 points or more.

Let's take a closer look at each of the first six series on the list.

1964

The Celtics beat Wilt Chamberlain's San Francisco Warriors in Game One before rolling by 23 to take a commanding 2-0 lead to the West Coast. Wilt scored 35 in leading the Warriors to a Game Three win, but it would be their only victory of the series as Boston won its sixth straight title in five games.

1977

The Portland Trail Blazers found themselves in an 0-2 hole after an 18-point loss to the 76ers in Philadelphia. Back home in Rip City, Maurice Lucas scored 27 points and Bill Walton added 20 to ignite a Blazers comeback. They'd win the next three games to claim the crown. Portland is one of three teams to win the Finals after trailing two games to none*.

* The others are the 1969 Celtics and the 2006 Heat. Like the Blazers, Miami won four straight after dropping the first two games.

1982

This is the series that 2013's has mirrored the most. The '82 Lakers, like the Spurs, pulled out a road win before getting roughed up in Game Two. Returning home, the Lakers won by 21 thanks to Norm Nixon's 29 points and Magic Johnson's near triple-double (22-9-8). L.A. won the next game as well and although they couldn't wrap up the series in Philly, they came back to The Forum and won Game Six to clinch.

1986

The Celtics were supposed to have another showdown with the Lakers, but L.A. was upset by the Houston Rockets in the Western Finals. Boston won three of the first four games, but Hakeem Olajuwon kept the C's from clinching with 32 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks. Three nights later in Boston, Larry Bird put up 29 points, 11 boards and 12 assists for a Game Six win and a third championship.

1996

With the return of Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls posted the best record in NBA history (72-10). They went 11-1 in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but waiting for them in the Finals were the Seattle SuperSonics. In the first-ever Finals matchup of 64+-win teams, Chicago raced out to a 3-0 series lead. The 22-point win in Seattle made a sweep look like a fait accompli. The Sonics showed some fight, however, delaying the Bulls' coronation with a 21-point win in Game Four and an 11-point victory to send the series back to Chicago. The Bulls finally put the Sonics away with an 87-75 win to take their place as the NBA's greatest.

2005

The defending-champion Pistons and perennial-contender Spurs met for the '05 title and while the series went seven games, it lacked drama for the first four games. Detroit won the first two games by 15 and 21 points and when the series shifted to San Antonio, the Spurs won the next two by 17 and 31. Robert Horry's three-pointer with 5.8 seconds left in overtime gave the Spurs a 96-95 win in Game Five. Needing to win two games on the road, Detroit took Game Six and was tied with the Spurs going into the fourth quarter of Game Seven, but San Antonio pulled away late to win the title.

Boston vs. Chicago in the Postseason

The Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks will square off in what should be a fantastic Stanley Cup Final. These two great American cities have seen their sports teams face each other in the playoffs many times over the years, with at least one Boston/Chicago showdown in each of the four major professional sports.

NHL
Year	Round	Boston	Chicago	Result
1927	Quarterfinals	Bruins	Black Hawks	Bruins 10-5 (two-game most-goals series)
1942	Quarterfinals	Bruins	Black Hawks	Bruins 2-1
1970	Semifinals	Bruins	Black Hawks	Bruins 4-0
1974	Semifinals	Bruins	Black Hawks	Bruins 4-2
1975	Preliminary	Bruins	Black Hawks	Black Hawks 2-1
1978	Quarterfinals	Bruins	Black Hawks	Bruins 4-0
NBA
Year	Round	Boston	Chicago	Result
1948	Quarterfinals	Celtics	Stags	Stags 2-1
1981	Conference Semis	Celtics	Bulls	Celtics 4-0
1986	First	Celtics	Bulls	Celtics 3-0
1987	First	Celtics	Bulls	Celtics 3-0
2009	First	Celtics	Bulls	Celtics 4-3
MLB
Year	Round	Boston	Chicago	Result
1918	World Series	Red Sox	Cubs	Red Sox 4-2
2005	ALDS	Red Sox	White Sox	White Sox 3-0
NFL
Year	Round	Boston	Chicago	Result
1985	Super Bowl XX	Patriots	Bears	Bears 46-10

The pair of Original Six teams haven't played each other since 1978, but the Bruins have dominated the series history that consists mostly of Bobby Orr-Phil Esposito/Stan Mikita-Tony Esposito battles from the 1970's. The first entry on the list shows the quirky way that the NHL played its opening rounds prior to 1937. Division winners recieved a bye to the semis while the 2-seed and 3-seed in each division would play a two-game most-total-goals-wins set that winnowed the field to four.

* I'll also mention one Chicago-Boston meeting from the old days of the World Hockey Association. The New England Whalers played in Boston during their first two seasons before moving to Hartford and eventually merging into the NHL. After the Whale took the first WHA title in 1973 and won the '74 East Division crown, the Chicago Cougars upset them 4-3 in the first round of the playoffs.

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Other than the bygone days of the Chicago Stags, the NBA's Sam Adams-Old Style rivalry has been rather one-sided. The Celtics swept three series between 1981 and 1987. One of the 11 games was one of the greatest ever played. Game Two of the 1986 series at the Boston Garden featured a young Michael Jordan taking on the great '86 Celtics team that was 40-1 at home in the regular season. Jordan had only played 18 games in his second season due to a broken foot, but he came back for the playoffs and minted the first piece of his incredible NBA legacy.




MJ scored a playoff-record 63 points, but was done in by the more complete team and Larry Bird's 36-12-8 line and Kevin McHale's 27 points and 15 boards. After the game, Bird said "I think it's God disguised as Michael Jordan."

2009 brought an epic seven-game first-round clash. Three of the first five games went to overtime, but it was Game Six that put the series among the all-time best. The reigning-champion Celtics led 3-2, but the Bulls forced Game Seven with a 128-127 triple-overtime win.




Back in Boston, the Celtics won 109-99 to take a series that set NBA records for overtime games (four) and overtime periods (seven).

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World War I forced the 1918 baseball season to end early and the World Series was played in September. The soon-to-be star-crossed Cubs and Red Sox had won six of the first 14 World Series and the 15th would be a low-scoring affair.

In Game One at Comiskey Park (Chicago's games were held on the South Side because the park was bigger than Wrigley Field), southpaw Babe Ruth tossed a six-hit shutout to put the Red Sox in front. The next two games in Chicago (wartime travel restrictions made for an unusual 3-4 home-field format) were split.

The fourth game really swung the series. Although the Cubs scored twice off Ruth in the top of the eighth to tie it 2-2, a sac bunt and errant throw to first in the bottom half gave Boston a 3-2 victory and 3-1 lead.

Chicago staved off elimination with a Hippo Vaughn five-hit shutout in Game Five, but the Red Sox put it away the next day with a 2-1 win. Despite only scoring nine runs in six games, Boston took the title. It's the last (and probably forever will be the last) World Series in which nobody hit a home run.

The champion Red Sox moved to 5-0 during the first 15 Fall Classics. They would somewhat famously go without another title for another 86 years. The Cubs' championship drought reached ten years and it's still going. And going. And going.


There wouldn't be a Cheers-Family Matters matchup in the playoffs until 2005, when the Red Sox and White Sox played in the ALDS.

Chicago rolled to a 14-2 victory in the opener before digging out of a quick 4-0 hole in Game Two to win 5-4 and head to Boston up two games to none.

In the third game, the Pale Hose were clinging to a 4-3 lead in the sixth, but Boston had the bases loaded with nobody out. Orlando Hernandez came out of the bullpen and saved the day, getting two pop outs and a strikeout to preserve the lead. El Duque posted two more zeroes before handing the game to closer Bobby Jenks, who set down the Red Sox 1-2-3 to finish the sweep en route to the South Siders' first championship since 1917.

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We end with the one Will Hunting-Ferris Bueller matchup from the NFL.

The 1985 New England Patriots became the first team to win three road games and reach the Super Bowl in New Orleans*.

* The Pats were the only team to do it until 2005, but now it's happened four times in the last eight years. Not only did the 2005 Steelers, 2007 Giants, 2010 Packers and 2012 Ravens all win three road games in the playoffs, they all won the Super Bowl as well. 

Meanwhile, the powerhouse Bears went 15-1 and shut out the Giants (21-0) and Rams (24-0) in their two playoff games to win the NFC.

The 10-point underdog Pats actually took the lead 89 seconds into the game after a field goal followed a Chicago fumble. But it quickly turned into one of the most lopsided Super Bowl blowouts ever. Chicago's menacing defense keyed a run in which the Bears forced five turnovers and scored 44 straight points. New England scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but the Bears added another interception and a safety to shuffle their way to a 46-10 win.




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NBA Finals: Winning Game One on the Road

By the hair of their chinny-chin-chin, the San Antonio Spurs edged the Miami Heat 92-88 to steal a game on the road and take home-court advantage in the NBA Finals. It's the second 92-88 game in Finals history, but more importantly, it's only the 17th time that the visitor has won the opening game of the championship series.

Home teams were 50-16 in Game One heading into Thursday night and riding an eight-game winning streak. Here are the first 16 road Game One wins. The games that are colored blue kick-started series victories while the home team recovered to win the title in the series that are marked in red.

Date	Tm		Opp	Result
2004-06-06	DET	@	LAL	W 87-75
2001-06-06	PHI	@	LAL	W 107-101 (OT)
1995-06-07	HOU	@	ORL	W 120-118 (OT)
1993-06-09	CHI	@	PHO	W 100-92
1991-06-02	LAL	@	CHI	W 93-91
1988-06-07	DET	@	LAL	W 105-93
1984-05-27	LAL	@	BOS	W 115-109

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/7/2013.

Date	Tm		Opp	Result
1982-05-27	LAL	@	PHI	W 124-117
1975-05-18	GSW	@	WSB	W 101-95
1974-04-28	BOS	@	MIL	W 98-83
1972-04-26	NYK	@	LAL	W 114-92
1966-04-17	LAL	@	BOS	W 133-129 (OT)
1958-03-29	STL	@	BOS	W 104-102
1957-03-30	STL	@	BOS	W 125-123 (2OT)
1953-04-04	NYK	@	MNL	W 96-88
1950-04-08	MNL	@	SYR	W 68-66

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/7/2013.

Game One road winners are 8-8 in the series:

Won in Four: 1975 Warriors, 1995 Rockets
Won in Five: 2004 Pistons, 
Won in Six: 1950 Lakers, 1958 Hawks, 1982 Lakers, 1993 Bulls
Won in Seven: 1974 Celtics
Lost in Seven: 1957 Hawks, 1966 Lakers, 1984 Lakers, 1988 Pistons
Lost in Six:
Lost in Five: 1953 Knicks 1972 Knicks, 1991 Lakers, 2001 76ers

Four of the 16 teams dropped four straight to lose 4-1. At least the other four teams that lost the series pushed it to seven. In the case of the '75 Warriors and '95 Rockets, the road victory was a catalyst for a four-game sweep.

I just hope the rest of the games in this NBA Finals are as good as Thursday's. San Antonio will look to follow the example of two clubs that won Game Two on the road as well. The 1995 Rockets won both games in Orlando en route to the sweep. The 1993 Bulls won the first two in Phoenix, then lost two of three at home before going back to the desert to wrap up a three-peat™.

Miami is almost in must-win territory on Sunday night, but if they pull out the win to even the series they'll be in pretty good shape. Just win one of three in Texas and you'd return home down 3-2 with two to play in your building.

But there's no denying how huge this was for the Spurs, doing something that only two teams had done in the last 17 years.

NBA Conference Finals: One Sweep, One Goes Seven

The Miami Heat just obliterated the Indiana Pacers to move on to the NBA Finals. While they had to go the full seven games to claim the Eastern crown, the San Antonio Spurs have been resting up after their Western Conference Finals sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies.

It should be a fun series starting on Thursday, with LeBron James going for his second championship and Tim Duncan aiming for his fifth.

There will be concerns about the Spurs being rusty after getting nine days off, but Miami's long series raises questions as well.

This is the seventh time in NBA history that one Conference Finals series ended in a sweep while the other one went seven games. Let's take a look at the other six postseasons. 


2001

With Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant at the top of their game, the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers steamrolled through the Western Conference playoffs. Their sweep of the Spurs sent them to the Finals with a 19-game winning streak.

On the other side were the Philadelphia 76ers, led by MVP Allen Iverson. The Sixers were pushed to the brink in the Conference Semis by Vince Carter's Raptors, winning in seven games. The Eastern Finals went the distance as well, with AI outdueling Ray Allen with 44 points in Game Seven to beat the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Finals were supposed to be a mismatch, but Philly brought it in the opener. Shaq poured in 44 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, but the underdogs sent the game to overtime. Iverson led a 13-2 run in the final 2:20 of overtime for a surprising 107-101 road victory. The indelible moment of the game was Iverson draining a shot over Tyronn Lue, then dramatically stepping over the fallen opponent.




Iverson's 48 points carried Philly to the opening-game victory, but that would be the end of the drama. Shaq averaged 33 points, 15.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.4 blocks and Kobe put in 24.6 ppg as LA won four straight to win the second of what would be three consecutive titles.


1998

It was a rematch from the previous June as the Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls met again after both won 62 games. The Karl Malone and John Stockton Jazz rocked the Lakers to win the West while the Bulls had a tough time with the Indiana Pacers.

Game Four of the Eastern Finals was a classic. Reggie Miller hit a three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to put Indy in front and Michael Jordan's desperate shot swirled out at the buzzer to even the series at 2-2.




Chicago pulled out Game Seven at home to keep their hopes of a second three-peat™ alive.

In Game One at Utah, the worn-out Bulls battled into overtime, but the Jazz won 88-85. Chicago won the next three, including a 96-54 shellacking in Game Three that held Utah to the lowest point total in the NBA playoffs since 1950.

The Jazz avoided elimination in Game Five to send the series back to Salt Lake. Game Six was tied in the final minute and just watch this:




It seemed that this would be the last shot Michael Jordan would take in the NBA. He came back  five years later with the Wizards, but it doesn't diminish this legendary moment.

1996

The old Sonics teams of Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton and Detlef Schrempf were a favorite of mine, although they ran into the greatest team of all time, they took two games in the Finals.

The Bulls won a record 72 games and took 11 of 12 playoff contests aiming for return to the top in the first full season of MJ's comeback. Seattle had an impressive year as well with 64 wins, making 1996 the first season in NBA history that had two teams win 64 or more*.

* It happened again the following year (Bulls 69, Jazz 64) and in 2009 (Cavs 66, Lakers 65)

Seattle nearly blew a 3-1 WCF lead to Utah, but edged the Jazz 90-86 in Game Seven to earn a date with the Bulls. Utah would get their revenge by winning the next two Western titles.

The juggernaut Bulls won the first three games by margins of 17, 4 and 22. The SuperSonics didn't go down easily though, storming back to take the next two to send it back to Chicago at 3-2.




Damn, the NBA on NBC intros were awesome! Behind Jordan's 22-9-7 line and Dennis Rodman's 19 rebounds, the Bulls pulled away 87-75 to win the championship.

1987

The 65-win Lakers went 11-1 in the Western playoffs, with the only loss coming in the famed Sleepy Floyd game. The Warriors guard scored 29 points in a record-setting fourth quarter, but that would be the only mark against LA until the Finals.

Boston battled the rival Pistons in a seven-game victory, thanks in part to this all-time great moment in Game Five.




Of course, here is Johnny Most's call of the play:




In the Finals, the Lakers took the first two games at home and the Celtics won the next one back in Boston. It appeared that home court would hold once more as the C's led 103-95 with 3:30 to go. LA stormed back and trailed by one point in the waning moments, setting the stage for Magic Johnson.




Larry Bird's heave barely missed and the Lakers took control of the series before wrapping it up in six games.

1982

The Lakers swept both of their playoff series and the 76ers eked out the East title after nearly squandering a 3-1 series lead to the Celtics for the second straight year. They did it the hard way, winning Game Seven in Boston. The coronation included this really cool "BEAT LA" chant from the Boston Garden crowd.




The Lakers won the championship in a six-game series that was somewhat ho-hum, with an average margin of victory of over 16 points. 13 was a lucky number in the clincher when Magic posted a 13-13-13 triple-double.

1968

Another Lakers sweep here, along with another seven-game victory for the Celtics over Philly. Boston became the first team in league history to overcome a 3-1 deficit, winning Games Five and Seven on the road.

Four of the best ever squared off again. Elgin Baylor and Jerry West were trying to get over the hump, having lost to the Celtics in the Finals five and four times, respectively. John Havlicek and first-year player/coach Bill Russell saw the Sixers end their eight-peat in 1967 and were looking to climb to the top once more.

The clubs split the first two in Boston, then split the next two out west. A narrow 120-117 home win gave the advantage to the Celtics, who closed it out in Game Six. West averaged 31 points in the series and Baylor averaged 26, but it wasn't enough. Havlicek put up 27 ppg and Russell turned in a ridiculous line of 17.3 points, 21.8 boards, 5.7 assists to pick up his tenth ring.






In five of the six previous instances, the West champ swept and rested while the East winner grinded it out in seven (1996 the lone exception). The sweeper won the Finals four times (including three Lakers teams) while the 1968 Celtics and 1998 Bulls were able to overcome fatigue. The Finals on this list have given us some of the greatest moments in league history. Hopefully the Spurs and Heat can add another great chapter starting Thursday.


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One quirky thing about the sweep/seven dynamic: All four times it's happened in baseball, the team that went seven in the LCS beat the LCS sweeper in the World Series (twice in four games, twice in five). They are:

1988: Dodgers (d. Mets in 7) beat A's (swept Red Sox) in five games
2006: Cardinals (d. Mets in 7) beat Tigers (swept A's) in five games
2007: Red Sox (d. Indians in 7) beat Rockies (swept Diamondbacks) in four games
2012: Giants (d. Cardinals in 7) beat Tigers (swept Yankees) in four games


This has happened twice in the NHL postseason. In 1952, the Red Wings swept the Maple Leafs in the semis and Montreal beat Boston in seven games. Detroit swept through the Canadiens as well for the Stanley Cup, outscoring opponents 24-5 in their 8-0 run. In 2003, the Devils knocked off the Senators 4-3 for the East title while the 7-seed Mighty Ducks of Anaheim ran through the Minnesota Wild (thanks to Jean-Sabastien Giguere stopping 122 of 123 shots). Home-ice advantage held firm for just the third time in Cup Final history as the host won all seven games in a New Jersey victory. Giguere became the fifth losing player to earn Conn Smythe honors.