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[NBA.com] Greatest Playoff Upsets Ever

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by plutoblue11, Apr 17, 2009.

  1. plutoblue11

    plutoblue11 Member

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    http://www.nba.com/playoffs2007/news/upsets_070503.html

    9. Rocketball -- Houston Rockets 1981 Postseason Run

    Rocketball, Uglyball, it didn’t matter what you called it, it was effective for the 40-42 Houston Rockets and one of the unlikeliest runs in playoff history – all the way to the ’81 Finals.

    How impressive was Houston’s run?

    The Rockets knocked off the defending champion Lakers (Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in three games and the Midwest Division champ San Antonio Spurs, who featured the stellar backcourt of George Gervin, Johnny Moore and James Silas (and don’t forget the Bruise Brothers – Mark Olberding, George Johnson and Dave Corzine in the frontcourt) in seven games, including three wins in San Antonio.

    The Western Conference Finals between the Rockets and Kansas City Kings assured one thing – the winner advancing to the Finals would be a sub .500. The Kings, who upended the heavily favored 57-25 Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Semis, also boasted a 40-42 record but could only manage one win against the Rockets.

    The Rockets were led by a 26-year-old Moses Malone, who posted regular-season averages of 27.8 points and 14.8 rebounds (led the league), 32-year-old Calvin Murphy and defensive specialist Robert Reid.

    The Cinderella run ended for the Rockets in the Finals. After splitting the first four games, Malone, unimpressed with the Celtics told reporters, “The Celtics aren’t that great. I could get four guys from the playground in Petersburg [Va., his hometown] and beat them.”

    The Rockets proceeded to lose the next two games. Little know fact: Robert Reid held second-year player Larry Bird to a 15.3 points per game average and backed up his famous pre series quote when he said: “I’m going to stick so close to Larry Bird that I can tell you what kind of deodorant he’s wearing.”
     
  2. withmustard

    withmustard Member
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    95 rockets. That 6th seed didn't just get to the finals. Also the 94 nuggets over seattle. GS over dallas. 99 8th seed knicks.
     
  3. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    except they were the defending champs.

    in my mind there was nothing like that nuggets/sonics series in 94. but warriors/mavs a few years back was close.
     
  4. rimbaud

    rimbaud Contributing Member
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    Yes that held a lot more weight for people like us because it cleared the path for Championship #1 with those horrible Sonics out of the way.

    Even though it is a bigger feat in a 7 game series, the Warriors-Mavs series wasn't as giant in general. I guess because the Mavs always seemed a little weak, even when they were good.
     
  5. HeWhoIsLunchbox

    HeWhoIsLunchbox Contributing Member

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    The greatest upsets are 8th seed Denver beating the 1st seeded Sonics and GSW over the Ponies two years ago. The greatest playoff accomplishment, though, is the '95 championship run.
     
  6. nabeel623

    nabeel623 Contributing Member

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    Although it was an 8 seed beating a 1 seed, i don't think you can consider GS over Dallas one of the greatest upsets considering that everyone knew prior to the series that GS would give Dallas problems and had a really good chance of advancing (they owned Dallas during the regular season so the "upset" wasn't a shocker, at least to me)
     
  7. HeWhoIsLunchbox

    HeWhoIsLunchbox Contributing Member

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    A 67 win team losing to a team that was 1 game over .500 isn't an upset? Just because the Warriors had success in the season series, doesn't mean that Dallas still wasn't highly favored.
     
  8. plutoblue11

    plutoblue11 Member

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    How could they not list the 47 win 95 Rockets (or even give mention), because that is remarkable for any team ,especially not having home field advantage?


    Rockets defeated

    60 win Jazz (3-2)
    59 win Suns (4-3)
    62 win Spurs (4-2)
    59 win Magic (4-0)

    every series without HCA. This has never happened in the playoffs before.
     
  9. GRENDEL

    GRENDEL Contributing Member

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    Think your right about the HCA, that 95 team gets the biggest shaft considering how incredible a run it was.
     
  10. plutoblue11

    plutoblue11 Member

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    Grendal - It's strange, because this year's Rockets are going to need a run similar to 95 and 81 teams to even get WCFs.
     
  11. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"

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    I wish some of you youngsters could have see Moses play in the 1981 playoffs. Good lord but that was fun. I have still never seen anyone rebound like him, on both ends. He was not physically overpowering, he was just as skilled, per inch of height, as you could possibly be as a rebounder. Maybe Rodman could be compared in that way, but I think Moses had even less of a vertical leap. It's like he could always smell where the ball was headed, and in 1981, he went into a shamanistic trance of rebounding, especially in tight games.
     
  12. GRENDEL

    GRENDEL Contributing Member

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    I know and we'll see how it plays out for this year but that 95 and 81 run were just insane.
     
  13. Kim

    Kim Contributing Member

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    While I do consider the GSW-Mavs series an upset, it wasn't a shocker to me watching it. The GSW were a tough matchup for the Mavs and the Warriors were playing great basketball and on freakin fire.

    Now I remember watching the Nuggets play the Sonics and that my friends was a mini-miracle. The Nuggets were just not very good but they survived. They weren't bad, they pulled the exact drama vs. Utah in their next series, going down 3-0 then winning 3 in a row to force a game 7 but had no real shot. That was the general feeling for game 5 vs the Sonics...no real shot.

    It wasn't unusual for teams to go down 0-2 back in those days and then tie it up 2-2 because of the playoff format. And if you guys remember that game 5...that was crazy. What was it, like 5 24 second violations by the Nuggets in crunch time? To me, there was clearly an inferior team (the Nuggets) on the court that was just dodging bullets left and right. The Sonics were shutting the Nuggets down but just missing shots themselves. It was truly a happy moment for me (as a Rockets fan) and so surprising.

    If that game 5 was played 10 times, the Nuggets would have one 2 in my opinion. That's why I consider it a bigger upset than the other 8 over 1s. NYK-Mia were equally talented and there should be an * b/c of the strike season. And the Warriors dominated the series.
     
  14. plutoblue11

    plutoblue11 Member

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    Why is it that George Karl's teams and the Jazz experience so many disappointments?
     
  15. rimbaud

    rimbaud Contributing Member
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    I was going to post about that game 5. It was ridiculous. From the start, the Seattle crowd was crazy loud and had all of their "not in our house" posters waving. Then the Sonics jump out to a 10-or so point lead and it looked over for the Nugs. They somehow hung in and got it to a last shot situation for Seattle and then the iconic celebration by Dikembe after making the defensive play. Just incredible.

    They had some serious plaers on that Nugs team
     
  16. plcmts17

    plcmts17 Member

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    Because Karma is a Rockets fan.
     
  17. rimbaud

    rimbaud Contributing Member
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    I got cut off but I was going to write that Denver had some talented players but they were inexperienced and then many got hit with injuries and their team and careers got all screwed up.
     
  18. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    That nuggets team may have been underrated. not a lot of talent, but a younger dikembe, bison deli, and laphonso ellis were a hell of front line, along with robert pack at point playing out of his mind. you also had rodney rogers, not great players, but a good roster.
     
  19. plutoblue11

    plutoblue11 Member

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    How could you not mention Mahmoud Abdul -Rauf aka Chris Jackson and Reggie Williams?
     
  20. Kim

    Kim Contributing Member

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    They won 36 games the year prior, 42 that year, then 41, 35, 21, 11, 14...They were not a good team. The weren't terrible, but a 1st round and done resume at best were it not for the game 5 upset in Seattle.

    The Supersonics won 55 games the prior season, 63 that year, then 57, 64, 57, 61...The were a very good team.
     

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