which nba playoffs series loss hurts you rocket fans the most of alltime

97 was so heart wrenching for me, I was so excited to get to see Barkley team up with Hakeem to show the world that we could beat the Bulls.

 

Yeah Ive got to say 1997 as well.

 

Easily 1997 to the Jazz for me. I was 8 years old and was just sooo upset after that loss. I remember crying leaving the Summit. I was 8 ****ing years old and apparently understood the concept of a moving pick more than the refs. That was kinda the end of that era of the Rockets as well, the last real shot they had at a title.

 

I agree with this, I was frustrated whole summer because I thought Rockets had all the tools to go deep into playoffs.

2005 was also painful but it could be seen that Rockets lacked supporting cast.

 

It was the one that stung the most. The 97' one wasn't that shocking, we were down 3-2 and John Stockton was abusing Matt Maloney. If we had a decent point guard - heck, if we had brent price even (who was playing well until he got hurt) - I think we'd have made it through. But I knew we were a bit shaky at the PG spot and Hakeem was getting older so was Barkely. Robert Horry would have made the switch and covered stockton a lot faster too.

But that 96' loss - it was like the magical wand was broken. The elimination streak ended. To me, it was the end of clutch city. That legacy. You just knew in your heart. They almost pulled game 4 out in a miraculous comeback, but it was like all the magic had been exhausted...and just seeing Hakeem wondering around afterwards was a really sad sight. It was the only time I felt depressed after a team lost.

 

1993 was painful, but the pain is mitigated for the most part by the championships in 94 and 95. The 97 loss leaves endless thoughts of "what if" since that particular lineup never really got another shot at it.

 

07 jazz series could've been won if it weren't for one thing, RAFER ALSTON!!!. If u remember we had the lead late. But this idiot went "Skip 2 my Lou" and dribbled out of bounds. It was by far the stupidist thing he did as a rocket

 

Nothing hurts worse than the 1997 dagger. That truly should have been our year, it still stings thinkiing about it.

 

1. 97 The Dagger

2. 05 Tmac played sooo great that series but ran out of gas

3. 07 Just couldnt get a rebound

 

The series where we had teams that were capable of winning the championship.

1. 97 vs. Utah. It still makes me sick.
2. 93 vs. Sonics. We were the best team in the NBA the second half of the year and could have beaten Phoenix and Chicago.
3. 77 Eastern conference finals vs. Philadelphia
4. 86 Finals vs. Boston.

We were not a championship caliber team in 05 (we might have been if Howard was playing) or in 07, so, while these losses hurt, they are not like the ones above.

 

1997, because not only were we a better team than the Jazz... I feel like we would have beat the Bulls too.

It's hard to be mad about something like the '86 finals, when it's pretty clear the better team won. Does it suck? Was it a missed opportunity? Sure. But it doesn't hurt like '97 did.

 

97 Jazz.

I wanted to finally play the Bulls and I wanted Barkley to get his title. That wouldve been an all time great finals too. So much starpower in one series.

 

The one series that doesn't get much run but was a heart breaker too was the 97-98 Rox/Jazz 1st rd battle. It was a 5 gamer and the Rox were the #8 seed but had everyone healthy for one last push. The Rox had taken control of the series going up 2-1 and had like a 15 point lead in game 4 3rd period but then Barkely, who was dominating Malone, messed up his quad muscle pretty bad. The Jazz would go on a ridiculous run to win game 4 and send it back to Utah for Clyde's last game. We were actually in it most of the way but Clyde shot like 2-17 and without Charles, Malone went crazy and we lost.

The heartbreaking part of this series was we were going to be the 2nd #8 seed to beat a #1, would have probably gone on a major run because we would have beaten the Spurs in the next round and then a matchup with the Lakers, Clyde's last game and Barkley's last game as a true factor.

 

I am sure Tinman can confirm this but game 4 was OURS. Barkley was just abusing Malone and the Summit was ROCKING. The moment Charles went down the whole stadium pretty much knew it was over.

 

I was too young to watch the 80s series live so I didn't "feel" the pain of those, but for me:

1) 97 - The high of EJ's 3 was one of the best Rockets highs ever, and the pain of the dirty, hated Jazz winning was one of the lowest and sharpest. I was very depressed after. The beginning of the 96-97 season I really thought we had the greatest team in NBA history, they started so hot but were just mediocre/above avg the rest of the year...But I guess more than anything I don't think of Hakeem after 97 as the Dream of old...

2) 93 - So close, we should have won, Hakeem was in his prime...The basketball gods made sure the Sonics were knocked out by the 8 seed in 94 for their undeserving win in 93...

3) 05 - WTF happened, TMac dunked on Sean Bradley who was late coming over on defense anyway and probably sold 1000 more jerseys because of it...That's all we've got from that series, we were up 2-0!!

 

05 Mavs series was brutal! win the first two on the mavs homecourt, then come home and have two 4th quarter leads at home and blow both games,then get robbed in game 5, BRUTAL!!

 

The Jazz series that finished Van Gundy. Easily.

Why? Because we were the higher seed. Had the home court. Worked all season for that position. Started the series well. Then got worse and worse, more and more outplayed. Narrowly escaped in game 5 and learned nothing from it. Sucked in Utah, came home and -- gggh, gggh -- choked it away at the end. You know how great times find a way to win in the clutch? We didn't. Got outhustled, outsmarted, and worst of all, looked ugly doing it. An embarrassment.