We have witnessed some of the biggest upsets in the NBA during the postseason.
The NBA Playoffs is the 16-team tournament after the regular season which features the Top 8 teams of each conference playing each other in a 1 vs 8 formats over a seven-game series.
Although the higher seeds represent the better teams during the regular season and they enjoy home-court advantage during the series, there always a chance that the lower seed pulls off the upset. In the last 30 years, we’ve seen the underdog prevail over the favorite several times but here are the biggest upsets we’ve seen in the NBA playoffs during the past three decades:
Series Odds: Phoenix Suns +500, Los Angeles Lakers -700
The Los Angeles Lakers dominated the 80s decade by winning four NBA titles under the Showtime era. They entered 1990 winning two out of the last three Western Conference Finals, winning the NBA title in both seasons. Los Angeles lost Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to retirement during the previous offseason but they still had the core of Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Byron Scott on hand.
The Lakers won 63 games that season and faced a Suns team that had 54 regular-season wins themselves. But Los Angeles had beaten Phoenix in their previous six meetings in the playoffs including a 4-0 sweep in the 1989 Western Conference finals. This series wasn’t supposed to be any different but the Suns were fueled by Kevin Johnson and Tom Chambers as they took out the Lakers in five games.
Series Odds: Detroit Pistons +500, Los Angeles Lakers -700
The Lakers won three straight titles from 2000-2002 but struggled in 2003 and lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals. The Lakers stormed back in 2004 after adding future Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton to their line-up. Even without home-court advantage, the Lakers made the NBA Finals by beating the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Eastern Conference representatives to the NBA Finals won a total of six championship games from 1999-2003 and the Pistons entered this series as heavy underdogs because of the Lakers’ all-star line-up. But the Pistons used defense to beat the ultra-talented Lakers. Detroit shut down Los Angeles and allowed them to score only 82 points per game during the series, limiting the Lakers to 80 or fewer points in three games.
Series Odds: Orlando Magic +550, Cleveland Cavaliers -700
The 2009 Cavs were the best team LeBron James had during his first tour of duty with Cleveland. The Cavs had the best record in the league at 66-16 and Mike Brown was named as Coach of the Year. James also won his first NBA MVP award that season and his team was the co-favorite to win the title along with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Orlando was led by Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard and a bunch of three-point shooting guys who hoisted an average of eight more three-pointers than the rest of the league. Behind the shooting of Rashard Lewis, JJ Redick, and Hedo Turkoglu, Orlando stole Game 1 and lost Game 2 on a buzzer-beater by King James. Orlando would go on to shoot 41% from three-ball and win the series in six games.
Series Odds: Golden State Warriors +700, Utah Jazz -1000
One year after the Utah Jazz pushed the world champions Los Angeles Lakers to seven games during their second-round series, they clinched their second-ever division title behind their new “Stockton to Malone” duo which was now in its second season.
On the other hand, the Golden State Warriors won 23 more games in 1989 with the help of #1 overall pick Mitch Richmond. However, the Warriors entered this series having dropped their final six assignments and moving down from #4 to #7 in the Western Conference team standings. Utah went cold in this five-game series while Chris Mullin was on fire with 41 in Game 1 and 35 in Game 3 as Golden State completed a three-game sweep.
Series Odds: Philadelphia 76ers +900, Chicago Bulls -1400
The Chicago Bulls finished the shortened season with a record of 50-16 and finished as the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the second straight season. Derrick Rose was coming off a 2011 season where he was named as MVP and the Bulls were raging, to say the least heading to the playoffs.
Philadelphia was the 8th seed in the East and they had not won a playoff series since 2003. Before this series, only four 8th seeds had beaten a top seed in the NBA playoffs. The trend was supposed to continue but then Derrick Rose tore his ACL with about one minute left in the 4th quarter of Game 1 and the Bulls up by a dozen points. The Bulls won that game but Philly won Game 2 and won all their home games to eliminate the Bulls.
Series Odds: Golden State Warriors +1200, Dallas Mavericks -1800
The Dallas Mavericks were out for revenge after losing the 2006 NBA Finals to the Miami Heat. The Mavs finished with the best record in the league at 67-15 and were making their seven straight appearances in the postseason. Dirk Nowitzki was unstoppable and he won his only NBA MVP award in 2007.
Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors played a fast-paced style and were the second highest-scoring team in the league with five players scoring at least 16 points per game. Don Nelson was back to coach Golden State and the team had uncanny shotmakers in Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis, and Jason Richardson. The Warriors won 16 out of their last 21 regular-season games and were peaking at the right time. They defeated the Mavericks 4-2 in what many call as one of the biggest upsets in NBA playoff history.
Series Odds: Denver Nuggets +1400, Seattle Supersonics -2000
Before this series, no 8th seed had even beaten a top seed in the NBA playoffs. In the first 10 seasons since the eight-team playoff series was introduced, the 8th seed had been swept in 12 out of the 20 series that took place and there was only two Game 5’s between the 1st and 8th seeds.
The Sonics set a franchise record for wins in 1994 and they closed out the regular season by winning 26 out of their last 31 games, including 12 victories in a row at home. Seattle entered the playoffs as the betting favorite to win the title in a season where Michael Jordan had retired. Seattle took a quick 2-0 lead but instead of winning the series by a clean sweep, the Nuggets won the last three games to record the first upset ever by an 8th seed.
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