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[h4]1. LOS ANGELES LAKERS, 2001[/h4]
[table][tr][th=""]
(7) Portland[/td][td]3
0[/td][td](2) L.A. Lakers
(3) Sacramento[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](2) L.A. Lakers
(1) San Antonio[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](2) L.A. Lakers
(1) Philadelphia[/td][td]4
1[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 23.68 | W-L record: 15-1 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Annihilated a top-seeded, 58-win San Antonio team infour games in the conference finals, winning the final two games by 39points and 29 points, respectively, to complete an unbeaten run throughthree 50-win teams in the West playoff bracket.
The low: Lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals at home to Philadelphia,briefly putting their repeat quest in peril. It was their onlypostseason defeat, and it came in overtime.
The story: The defending champion Lakers didn't have a greatregular season, winning only 56 games while the first bubbles of theShaq-Kobe feud surfaced, but they got on the same page before theplayoffs. Once point guard Derek Fisher returned from a foot injury, itwas lights out; the Lakers completed what virtually everyone considersthe best playoff run in league annals by narrowly missing out on anunbeaten postseason. Nine of the 15 wins were by double digits. Theopposition was quality, too. The Lakers had an 11-0 zip through theWest's three best teams of that era -- the Spurs, Kings and Blazers.Better yet, they finished the playoffs unbeaten on the road.
Their demolition ofthe Spurs, in particular, was impressive -- by my metric, it was thehighest-scoring conference finals round since 1967. Better yet, theLakers won their final eight games of the regular season as well. So,after starting off a ho-hum 48-26, they finished on a 23-1 blitz.
The only downer isthat there are few great moments contained within; they were too busydemolishing everybody. A three-point win in Game 1 against Sacramentoprobably qualifies as their most "tense" moment, but any drama in thatseries ended after L.A. won Game 3 on the road by 22. The openeragainst the Kings was their only game decided by fewer than five pointsuntil the Finals.
Photo credit: **** Raphael/NBAE/Getty Images
[h4]2. CHICAGO BULLS, 1996[/h4]
[table][tr][th=""]
(
Miami[/td][td]3
0[/td][td](1) Chicago
(5) New York[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Chicago
(2) Orlando[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](1) Chicago
(1) Seattle[/td][td]4
2[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 18.78 | W-L record: 15-3 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Won seven straight games against 60-win teams. Readthat sentence again. And four of the seven weren't even close -- theyhad wins by 38, 19, 17 and 22.
The low: The Bulls lost their focus someplace between Pike Placemarket and the Space Needle. After taking a 3-0 lead over Seattle inthe NBA Finals, the Bulls needed just one more win to top the Sixers'12-1 playoff run in 1983. Instead their offense went into a deep funk,scoring 86, 78 and 87 points in the final three games. Seattle's21-point romp in Game 4 remains one of the more jarring NBA games I canremember; Chicago had one double-digit loss in its previous 97 games.
The story: Considered by many as the greatest team ever, theBulls certainly looked the part for the first 15 games of theirpostseason run. Against a 60-win Orlando team in the conference finals,the Bulls won the opener by 38 and spanked the Magic again in Game 3.It was the second-highest-scoring conference finals in this study.
The Bulls alsobadly outclassed a 64-win Sonics team in the first three games of theFinals; most notably, they led Game 3 by 24 at the half, in a buildingwhere Seattle had gone 38-3 in the regular season.
Chicago also had ahiccup in Game 3 of the second round, falling in overtime to the Knicksbefore restoring order in the final two games.
Nonetheless, these playoffs were almost an afterthought; the team hadalready been crowned the best ever by most at this point because of arecord-breaking 72-win regular season. The Bulls weren't at their bestby the end, but they didn't need to be.
Photo credit: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
[h4]3. CHICAGO BULLS, 1991[/h4]
[table][tr][th=""]
(
New York[/td][td]3
0[/td][td](1) Chicago
(5) Philadelphia[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Chicago
(3) Detroit[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](1) Chicago
(3) L.A. Lakers[/td][td]4
1[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 18.59 | W-L record: 15-2 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Take your pick. Michael Jordan switching hands inmid-air on a high-flying layup, or John Paxson briefly taking over asChicago's superstar at the end of the title-clinching Finals Game 5,scoring 10 points in the final four minutes to seal the win.
The low: Lost Game 1 of the Finals at home before rallying to four straight wins and the first title of the Jordan era.
The story: The Bulls' first championship run also had their mostimpressive win-loss record of the six, as they breezed through the drawwith just two defeats. Of particular note was their four-game sweep ofdefending champion Detroit. But zoom the lens out and you see Chicagotook out three of the most iconic players of the generation: Inconsecutive rounds the Bulls topped Charles Barkley, Isiah Thomas andMagic Johnson, and took out the last two champions in the final tworounds.
The Bulls slippedin Game 3 of the East semis against a 44-win Sixers team, but the restof their résumé was impressive. Nine of their 15 wins were bydouble-digits, including a 41-point disembowelment of the Knicks intheir playoff opener.
The most crucialmoment came in Game 3 of the Finals in Los Angeles, with the seriestied at one after the Bulls narrowly lost the opener. Chicago was downby 13 and still trailed by two in the final seconds when Jordan (whoelse?) tied it with a jumper. The Bulls held L.A. to four points inovertime to take control of the series, and then won the final twogames on the road to clinch the title.
Photo credit: Ken Levine/Getty Images
[h4]4. MILWAUKEE BUCKS, 1971[/h4]
[table][tr][th=""]
(2) San Francisco[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Milwaukee
(1) L.A. Lakers[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Milwaukee
(1) Baltimore[/td][td]4
0[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 18.18 | W-L record: 12-2 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Made up for their first loss of the postseason by shellacking the San Francisco Warriors by 50. Yes, 50.
The low: Lost Game 3 of the Western Conference finals to briefly add a sliver of doubt to their playoff run.
The story: This is one of the forgotten great teams in history,partly because the Bucks won only one championship and partly becausethey did it so easily. With Lew Alcindor dominating the paint and astill-effective Oscar Robertson on the perimeter, the Bucks were onanother level in 1970-71, winning 66 regular-season games -- includingwin streaks of 20, 16 and 10 -- and then claiming the title withouthaving to face another 50-win team.
Milwaukee took careof its business by posting the third-highest score for a second round,the fifth-highest for a conference finals, and the highest one for aFinals -- a four-game rout of Baltimore in which no game was closerthan eight points. Thank heavens it went only four; it was played undera bizarre 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 format.
If you're looking for a memorable "moment" for this team, forget it.The Bucks were too busy blowing opponents off the floor. Their closestwin was by eight points, in Game 3 of the Finals, and they led thatgame by double digits nearly the entire fourth quarter. All told, theBucks played 14 games and won 11 of them by double figures; in theconference finals against the Lakers every one of their wins was by atleast 18 points.
Photo credit: Vernon Biever/WireImage
[h4]5. PHILADELPHIA 76ERS, 1983[/h4]
[table][tr][th=""]
(5) New York[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](1) Philadelphia
(2) Milwaukee[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Philadelphia
(1) L.A. Lakers[/td][td]4
0[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 17.13 | W-L record: 12-1 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Avenged a defeat to the Lakers in the previous year'sFinals by sweeping the defending champs in four games, winning Dr. Jand Moses Malone their only rings.
The low: Lost Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals in Milwaukee to miss out on backing up Malone's "fo', fo', fo'" prediction.
The story: One of the game's underrated champions because theydid it only once, the '83 Sixers were a 65-win juggernaut that kept upthe pace in the playoffs. Philly didn't win as comfortably as one mighthave hoped, with only two wins by more than 10 points, but it steadilymowed down the schedule. The biggest hurdle was the conference finalsopener against the Bucks, a team that history forgot because it didn'tmake the Finals but was one of the best teams of the '80s nonetheless.In fact, Milwaukee got to Round 3 by sweeping the Bird-McHale Celticsin a shocking upset.
Philly needed overtime to outlast Milwaukee in Game 1 and eventuallydropped Game 4, but the Sixers wouldn't lose again that season. Their12-1 mark stood as a record until the 2001 Lakers broke it, and whileneither the margins nor the opposition stood out, their accomplishmentremains largely unequaled.
The Sixers' demolition of the Lakers in the Finals, in particular,warrants respect: It's the second-highest scoring Finals series in thedatabase.
Photo credit: NBA Photos/NBAE/Getty Images
FIRST ROUND
[/th][th=""]WEST SEMIS
[/th][th=""]WEST FINALS
[/th][th=""]NBA FINALS
[/th][/tr][tr][td](2) L.A. Lakers(7) Portland[/td][td]3
0[/td][td](2) L.A. Lakers
(3) Sacramento[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](2) L.A. Lakers
(1) San Antonio[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](2) L.A. Lakers
(1) Philadelphia[/td][td]4
1[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 23.68 | W-L record: 15-1 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Annihilated a top-seeded, 58-win San Antonio team infour games in the conference finals, winning the final two games by 39points and 29 points, respectively, to complete an unbeaten run throughthree 50-win teams in the West playoff bracket.
The low: Lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals at home to Philadelphia,briefly putting their repeat quest in peril. It was their onlypostseason defeat, and it came in overtime.
The story: The defending champion Lakers didn't have a greatregular season, winning only 56 games while the first bubbles of theShaq-Kobe feud surfaced, but they got on the same page before theplayoffs. Once point guard Derek Fisher returned from a foot injury, itwas lights out; the Lakers completed what virtually everyone considersthe best playoff run in league annals by narrowly missing out on anunbeaten postseason. Nine of the 15 wins were by double digits. Theopposition was quality, too. The Lakers had an 11-0 zip through theWest's three best teams of that era -- the Spurs, Kings and Blazers.Better yet, they finished the playoffs unbeaten on the road.
Their demolition ofthe Spurs, in particular, was impressive -- by my metric, it was thehighest-scoring conference finals round since 1967. Better yet, theLakers won their final eight games of the regular season as well. So,after starting off a ho-hum 48-26, they finished on a 23-1 blitz.
The only downer isthat there are few great moments contained within; they were too busydemolishing everybody. A three-point win in Game 1 against Sacramentoprobably qualifies as their most "tense" moment, but any drama in thatseries ended after L.A. won Game 3 on the road by 22. The openeragainst the Kings was their only game decided by fewer than five pointsuntil the Finals.
Photo credit: **** Raphael/NBAE/Getty Images
[h4]2. CHICAGO BULLS, 1996[/h4]
FIRST ROUND
[/th][th=""]EAST SEMIS
[/th][th=""]EAST FINALS
[/th][th=""]NBA FINALS
[/th][/tr][tr][td](1) Chicago(
0[/td][td](1) Chicago
(5) New York[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Chicago
(2) Orlando[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](1) Chicago
(1) Seattle[/td][td]4
2[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 18.78 | W-L record: 15-3 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Won seven straight games against 60-win teams. Readthat sentence again. And four of the seven weren't even close -- theyhad wins by 38, 19, 17 and 22.
The low: The Bulls lost their focus someplace between Pike Placemarket and the Space Needle. After taking a 3-0 lead over Seattle inthe NBA Finals, the Bulls needed just one more win to top the Sixers'12-1 playoff run in 1983. Instead their offense went into a deep funk,scoring 86, 78 and 87 points in the final three games. Seattle's21-point romp in Game 4 remains one of the more jarring NBA games I canremember; Chicago had one double-digit loss in its previous 97 games.
The story: Considered by many as the greatest team ever, theBulls certainly looked the part for the first 15 games of theirpostseason run. Against a 60-win Orlando team in the conference finals,the Bulls won the opener by 38 and spanked the Magic again in Game 3.It was the second-highest-scoring conference finals in this study.
The Bulls alsobadly outclassed a 64-win Sonics team in the first three games of theFinals; most notably, they led Game 3 by 24 at the half, in a buildingwhere Seattle had gone 38-3 in the regular season.
Chicago also had ahiccup in Game 3 of the second round, falling in overtime to the Knicksbefore restoring order in the final two games.
Nonetheless, these playoffs were almost an afterthought; the team hadalready been crowned the best ever by most at this point because of arecord-breaking 72-win regular season. The Bulls weren't at their bestby the end, but they didn't need to be.
Photo credit: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
[h4]3. CHICAGO BULLS, 1991[/h4]
FIRST ROUND
[/th][th=""]EAST SEMIS
[/th][th=""]EAST FINALS
[/th][th=""]NBA FINALS
[/th][/tr][tr][td](1) Chicago(
0[/td][td](1) Chicago
(5) Philadelphia[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Chicago
(3) Detroit[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](1) Chicago
(3) L.A. Lakers[/td][td]4
1[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 18.59 | W-L record: 15-2 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Take your pick. Michael Jordan switching hands inmid-air on a high-flying layup, or John Paxson briefly taking over asChicago's superstar at the end of the title-clinching Finals Game 5,scoring 10 points in the final four minutes to seal the win.
The low: Lost Game 1 of the Finals at home before rallying to four straight wins and the first title of the Jordan era.
The story: The Bulls' first championship run also had their mostimpressive win-loss record of the six, as they breezed through the drawwith just two defeats. Of particular note was their four-game sweep ofdefending champion Detroit. But zoom the lens out and you see Chicagotook out three of the most iconic players of the generation: Inconsecutive rounds the Bulls topped Charles Barkley, Isiah Thomas andMagic Johnson, and took out the last two champions in the final tworounds.
The Bulls slippedin Game 3 of the East semis against a 44-win Sixers team, but the restof their résumé was impressive. Nine of their 15 wins were bydouble-digits, including a 41-point disembowelment of the Knicks intheir playoff opener.
The most crucialmoment came in Game 3 of the Finals in Los Angeles, with the seriestied at one after the Bulls narrowly lost the opener. Chicago was downby 13 and still trailed by two in the final seconds when Jordan (whoelse?) tied it with a jumper. The Bulls held L.A. to four points inovertime to take control of the series, and then won the final twogames on the road to clinch the title.
Photo credit: Ken Levine/Getty Images
[h4]4. MILWAUKEE BUCKS, 1971[/h4]
WEST SEMIS
[/th][th=""]WEST FINALS
[/th][th=""]NBA FINALS
[/th][/tr][tr][td](1) Milwaukee(2) San Francisco[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Milwaukee
(1) L.A. Lakers[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Milwaukee
(1) Baltimore[/td][td]4
0[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 18.18 | W-L record: 12-2 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Made up for their first loss of the postseason by shellacking the San Francisco Warriors by 50. Yes, 50.
The low: Lost Game 3 of the Western Conference finals to briefly add a sliver of doubt to their playoff run.
The story: This is one of the forgotten great teams in history,partly because the Bucks won only one championship and partly becausethey did it so easily. With Lew Alcindor dominating the paint and astill-effective Oscar Robertson on the perimeter, the Bucks were onanother level in 1970-71, winning 66 regular-season games -- includingwin streaks of 20, 16 and 10 -- and then claiming the title withouthaving to face another 50-win team.
Milwaukee took careof its business by posting the third-highest score for a second round,the fifth-highest for a conference finals, and the highest one for aFinals -- a four-game rout of Baltimore in which no game was closerthan eight points. Thank heavens it went only four; it was played undera bizarre 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 format.
If you're looking for a memorable "moment" for this team, forget it.The Bucks were too busy blowing opponents off the floor. Their closestwin was by eight points, in Game 3 of the Finals, and they led thatgame by double digits nearly the entire fourth quarter. All told, theBucks played 14 games and won 11 of them by double figures; in theconference finals against the Lakers every one of their wins was by atleast 18 points.
Photo credit: Vernon Biever/WireImage
[h4]5. PHILADELPHIA 76ERS, 1983[/h4]
FIRST ROUND
[/th][th=""]EAST SEMIS
[/th][th=""]EAST FINALS
[/th][th=""]NBA FINALS
[/th][/tr][tr][td]First-round bye[/td][td] [/td][td](1) Philadelphia(5) New York[/td][td]4
0[/td][td](1) Philadelphia
(2) Milwaukee[/td][td]4
1[/td][td](1) Philadelphia
(1) L.A. Lakers[/td][td]4
0[/td][/tr][/table]
Hollinger's playoff rating: 17.13 | W-L record: 12-1 | Result: Won NBA Finals
The high: Avenged a defeat to the Lakers in the previous year'sFinals by sweeping the defending champs in four games, winning Dr. Jand Moses Malone their only rings.
The low: Lost Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals in Milwaukee to miss out on backing up Malone's "fo', fo', fo'" prediction.
The story: One of the game's underrated champions because theydid it only once, the '83 Sixers were a 65-win juggernaut that kept upthe pace in the playoffs. Philly didn't win as comfortably as one mighthave hoped, with only two wins by more than 10 points, but it steadilymowed down the schedule. The biggest hurdle was the conference finalsopener against the Bucks, a team that history forgot because it didn'tmake the Finals but was one of the best teams of the '80s nonetheless.In fact, Milwaukee got to Round 3 by sweeping the Bird-McHale Celticsin a shocking upset.
Philly needed overtime to outlast Milwaukee in Game 1 and eventuallydropped Game 4, but the Sixers wouldn't lose again that season. Their12-1 mark stood as a record until the 2001 Lakers broke it, and whileneither the margins nor the opposition stood out, their accomplishmentremains largely unequaled.
The Sixers' demolition of the Lakers in the Finals, in particular,warrants respect: It's the second-highest scoring Finals series in thedatabase.
Photo credit: NBA Photos/NBAE/Getty Images
