http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ng-into-2015-nba-finals-warriors-or-cavaliers Cumulative Rankings: Historical Look at Toughest Roads to NBA Finals Over Last 15 Years Each of the teams was assigned a ranking from No. 1-30 in all of the above categories, which were each given an equal weight to determine a cumulative ranking of the toughest road to the Finals, with the lowest numbers representing the toughest path. Those rankings are below, with this year's Finals teams highlighted in bold. Rank Team Win % MOV NET-RTG SRS TOTAL 1 2009 ORL 1 3 2 3 9 2 2002 LAL 2 2 3 2 9 3 2001 LAL 6 1 1 1 9 4 2006 DAL 4 4 4 4 16 5 2008 LAL 9 5 6 5 25 6 2004 LAL 10 6 5 6 27 7 2011 DAL 3 9 10 8 30 8 2014 SAS 7 10 11 7 35 9 2011 MIA 11 7 7 11 36 10 2010 BOS 8 11 8 10 37 11 2010 LAL 13 8 9 9 39 12 2005 SAS 5 13 12 13 43 13 2007 SAS 14 12 13 12 51 14 2012 OKC 12 17 15 14 58 15 2003 SAS 18 14 14 15 61 16 2009 LAL 16 15 16 16 63 17 2006 MIA 17 19 17 18 71 18 2015 GSW 15 21 23 17 76 19 2004 DET 22 16 18 20 76 20 2012 MIA 23 18 19 19 79 21 2015 CLE 19 20 20 22 81 22 2005 DET 20 22 21 23 86 23 2013 SAS 21 23 22 21 87 24 2001 PHI 26 24 24 24 98 25 2008 BOS 25 25 26 25 101 26 2003 NJN 27 26 25 27 105 27 2002 NJN 29 27 27 26 109 28 2014 MIA 24 28 28 30 110 29 2007 CLE 28 29 29 28 114 30 2013 MIA 30 30 30 29 119 As you can see, both of this year's Finals representatives rank slightly below average in terms of the strength of their road to the Finals. Beyond that, here are a few notes about the findings above: The 2001 Lakers faced the toughest path to the Finals by margin of victory, net rating and SRS, but they are tied with the 2009 Magic and 2002 Lakers atop the cumulative rankings due to their opponents slightly underperforming relative to their expected win-loss records (based on margin of victory) during the regular season.
Don't understand how the 95 rockets didn't have the toughest road. Played 4 50 win teams ( I think 2 were 60 win teams) and never had home court
Because the 95 Rockets didn't play within the past 15 years, so they aren't considered in this article
As a general idea, the list seems pretty decent. Not gonna put way too much into a list that has the 2011 Heat and 2010 Celtics as having a "tougher" road to the finals than most of the western conference teams listed below them. The competition those Heat and Celtics teams faced was a joke.
To put things in perspective, the Orlando 2009 team's opponents had a winning percentage of .687 The winning percentage of the 1995 Western Conference Opponents was .736. Too bad the article didn't go back 20 years instead.
Well the 2011 Heat did have to go through the Bulls with a prime Rose and a big 3 Celtics. I think they just made it look easier than it was. The 2010 Celtics had to go against Lebron and Dwight in his prime. By Comparison the 2010 Lakers got to face the Thunder with a rookie Harden and they were no power then. The Utah Jazz who were on their way downward and their only real test were the suns. So it doesn't seem too much of a travesty. I think then it said that 3-4 teams could come out of the east and I think that was true then when you had Lebron and his one man Cleveland show and Dwight and his one man Orlando show.
How is conference inequality factored in? Top 4 teams in the East probably rank great in a bunch of categories... Because the rest of the teams in the East are horrible... Not because they are better than the top 4... Or even top 8 teams in the West, when considered as an opponent.
I think that's a concern in some of the years, but not in all the years. 2009 specifically, I think the top of the East was tougher than the top of the West. It's only right now and early 2000s when the top of the West is clearly superior, much more legit contenders.
Dwight Howard is probably the second best Orlando Magic player behind Shaq. Both future hall of famers.
Wow. That was just insane. Only team to ever win from the #6 seed. Only team to ever beat 4 50 win teams on their way to the championship. Only team to ever win a championship without having home court advantage in any round. I was a kid at the time that it happened. I remember everyone being excited to watch the Rockets' games and all of the buzz around my school and everything, but I wasn't old enough to understand or appreciate how much of an amazing accomplishment that year was.
Yep. I remember they also struggled to beat Philly with Iguodala as their best player. I assumed it would be remembered as one of the easier runs to the Finals. Maybe they put a lot of importance on beating LBJ.
Celtics were without Garnett Philly was philly They manhandled Lebron's Cavs though, but that Cavs team was like our team where it had no system, just Lebron free lancing To their credit, they were missing Jameer Nelson and had a rookie SG in Courtney Lee I always thought that team was very well coached and assembled and a clear identity. They surrounded Dwight with a lot of three point shooters and had Turkeyglue run pick and roll with Dwight which was very effective. they were exposed the next year though by the Celtics because Garnett made Rashard Lewis his biach.
LeBron is without question the best player of this generation, but it's also telling when all of his finals team are in the bottom of that list. His teams have just dominated a really weak conference for the last 5 years.
Well, you know that the Rockets' two championship runs don't even count? They should both have an asterisk next to them? You know, because Michael Jordan was retired for both of those years. Nevermind the fact that Jordan played over half of the season in 1995 and the entire 1995 playoffs, but lost to Orlando because they didn't have any Center to match Shaq (who then went on to be dominated by Hakeem in the Finals). Oh, and nevermind the fact that during the Bulls' first 3 championship years, the Rockets had the Bulls' number. Maxwell could play good defense on Jordan and no one on their team could play good defense on Hakeem. Don't listen to those things. The Rockets shouldn't have won any championships.
Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis were playing out of their mind in 2009, hitting clutch threes time and time again. Dwight of course was a dominant inside presence especially on the defensive end.
How did all those 00 Lakers teams make it into that list? It's well documented the refs were rigging their games. Doesn't seem so tough to me.
