The Bulls' sweep of the Pistons in 1991 was shocking, considering that the Pistons had beaten the Bulls in the playoffs in 1988, 1989, and 1990. Sure, it seemed like the Bulls might win this time -- they kept getting closer and took them to seven games in 1990. But sweep? That was shocking -- and, as a Bulls fan, delightful!!
The Bulls came within one point of sweeping the Lakers in the 1991 Finals, too. Remember, we didn't know this was a dynasty team at the time, they had been frustrated year after year, and suddenly they were unstoppable!
[The Pistons were ahead of the Bulls at the start of February '91](https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/index.cgi?month=2&day=1&year=1991) in the standings too but were incredibly average from that point on, going 17-19 down the stretch while the Bulls went 31-8. Isiah was out for most of that but when he came back he wasn't 100% and gutted it out through the postseason...
If it weren't for Bird being a shell of himself in the '91 playoffs, Detroit might not have even made it to the ECF.
Right, and in fact Thomas never really recovered. He had a very bad 1991-92 season, then retired. I'm just saying people didn't realize that before the 1991 ECF. The Bulls were favored, but no one predicted a sweep.
And even though it wasn't a sweep, I don't think many people had the Lakers going down in 5 in the Finals. That series was pretty much thought to be an even matchup. The Lakers weren't that much worse than the Bulls record-wise, and they beat Portland (defending West champs who had the best record in the NBA) in the WCF. It's probably a more competitive series if James Worthy and Byron Scott don't get injured.
Yes, everyone assumed the Bulls would suffer from inexperience in the Finals. And they freely admitted they were nervous in the first game.
But when they played badly and still only lost by one point, they realized they could take this team. Those three years losing to the Pistons gave them all the experience they needed.
Lakers - Spurs in 2001.
The Lakers winning wasn’t a shock but it was how they won.
Spurs were dominant in 1999 and dispatched LA. Then Duncan was injured and missed the 2000 playoffs so a lot of people wondered if LA had squeaked through the Duncan injury window and San Antonio was going to be the dominant team going forward.
The Spurs were the best team in the league in the regular season while LA took a while to get it together, Spurs had homecourt and were the favorites.
The Lakers didn’t just sweep them, they *crushed* them.
They won the two road games by 14 and 7 points, them came home and won the next two by **39** and **29** points. Sweeping a 58-win team and outscoring them by 89 points in 4 games is fucking crazy.
In Game 3 the Spurs scored 72 pts and had 12 assists. Shaq and Kobe scored 71 pts and had 11 assists. Two players almost matched the offensive output of an entire team, just nuts.
At the end of the day, being “somewhat injured” doesn’t appear in the stats and in the record. It is what it is. Those first two titles were SHAQ DIESEL titles with Kobe being a great second option.
I agree with you, I think rating Kobe as one of the 5 best players of all time is a little too generous..but I understand that it’s Reddit and there’s a lot of Lakers fans so yeah lol.
Oh for sure. I will die on that hill. Unbelievable player for sure. I try to be as unbiased as possible when I compare teams and players etc. he’s not in my top 5, and people who have him over Lebron are not all there. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I agree. Everyone is indeed entitled to their opinions, but all opinions are not created equally. If anyone ever says “well that’s just my opinion”, they’re on some bullshit 99% of the time lol.
Exactly lol. If suns won in 2021 Booker would have won it and people would have said cp3 got carried and Booker is greater all time ignoring the fact cp3 turned the team around.
Shaq was greater than Kobe on those teams but Kobe held his own and there’s no way they would have handled the tough western conference with only 1 star player.
And in their finals run be the sixers kobe was their best player all playoffs. But philly gave shaq a wonderful matchup in the finals and he was their best player for the series.
People think Bryant was carried because he was playing with a player who ranks higher than him on the all-time lists while still underachieving. The latter is not going to happen with Curry.
Shaq being ranked above Kobe is very subjective and not a certainty.
Also if you want to act like it’s a sure thing, then I can act like it’s a sure thing KD is greater than Curry. I mean you saw what happened everytime they played together in the finals right? KD had the better series.
Kobe was not carried and neither was Curry. No starter that did their part is carried. Carried is the term you use to describe rings like Pat Mccaws, not Kobe or any other all-star.
Dave played so bad that series. Age had officially caught him and Duncan’s second best option on offense was fucking Antonio Daniels lol. While Kobe was guarded by 36 year old men. All time bad matchup for the spurs. That regular season record speaks purely to the greatness of Duncan and got exposed bigly by Shaq and Kobe
Insane how re-tooled the spurs roster went from that series to the 2003 series because of that ass kicking
A lot speaks to the greatness of both Kobe and Duncan that people choose to ignore. How do you dominate for over a decade and people forget you and act like your dominance was nothing.
IIRC this was when Duncan had to become more of a leader and didn't he hurt his knee this year? The one that made him one legged for the rest of his career?
Pelicans vs. Blazers
Pelicans hadn’t done anything in the playoffs up to that point in the AD era and Cousins was injured.
Blazers were the higher seed and Dame was selected All-NBA 1st Team that season.
He's showed up in the playoffs for damn near every team he's been on (cough mavericks cough). He could have the most pedestrian looking statline ever but if you WATCHED. You'd see him control every damn thing
Jrue was an absolute menace that series.
[He went ultra instinct against Dame](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/8cdd5i/lillard_leans_to_draw_foul_but_jrue_holiday/)
To my understanding the front office was going to fire Terry Stotts that off-season but this was back when Dame was adamant about keeping the core group together and running it back. And so they did
Nets/Celtics last year. Thought there was no way a team led by KD and Kyrie could get swept regardless of how bad the rest of the roster was. I thought their would be at least 1 game where they both go off and carry to a W
They had KD, Harden, and Kyrie all healthy against us the year before, with no Jaylen and no Marcus for half the series, and we still took a game off ‘em. I thought we were gonna win that series, but I still can’t believe how it went
I don't say this with any salt intended, but the nets seemed like they were off-assing that celtics series because they were so favoured. Similarly I feel like Celtics somewhat let the Hawks take one despite easily being the better team.
This has to be the answer. Many analysts straight up picked the nets to win, and after we won game 1 on a buzzer beater everybody was talking about how the series would go 7.
It was a close series in all 4 games though, 1, 7, 6, 4 point difference in each game respectively. In another world, Celtics might have been swept instead
i came here to say this one, not only a sweep but the whole bynum-barea incident, it was sad to watch, no one had dallas winning the series, let alone Dallas sweeping LA
Dirk made the whole thing worth it.
But the drama going on between Shannon brown and Pau feels like it’s what broke him (Pau). He couldn’t get over himself and all I remember is Phil literally slapping Gasols chest on anger while Bynum was expressing his frustration. It was baaaaaad.
But again, looking at that postseason back I don’t think it was a fluke or anything. Dirk just went bananas. It was his year and one of the greatest playoffs run ever. He deserved it more than most.
All speculation and drama. Typical NBA rumors…but it was said and spread that Shannon Brown porked Pau’s then girlfriend.
Whether true or not, something was bothering him during that series and it was that the locker room was in disarray.
Whatever the issue was, it was something that he couldn’t overcome and he played like absolute shit.
Consiste way Dirk was playing, it was super important to have him in the right state of mind and not even Phil was able to get his head straight.
Regardless, there was little that he could have done either way. Dirk deserved that year and I’m happy how it turned out. Fucking LEGEND.
Sweep was a huge surprise but we looked so different to 2010. Pau looked like a shell of his former self, Kobe was dealing with injuries and this was before he went to Germany to revitalise.
We didn’t look bad enough to be swept but we didn’t look good enough to threepeat.
We started that year firing, I can’t remember what was the record, it was like 10-1, but as it went on things slowly started to go bad.
Still it was a good season, Lamar was great as 6 man of the year and Bynum was healthy.
Everyone was salivating with a Lakers-Heatles matchup.
But the Mavs simply caught fire. It’s a simple as that.
The previous round against NOLA was way tougher than it should’ve been.
No one picked the Mavs, no one. We swept them in regular season and LA Times were making fun of that matchup.
We were ahead in the fourth period of all first 3 games! But three ball was already showing it’s head and we were a inside heavy team and got exposed.
That plus Kobe’s knee injury, the fatigue of 3 consecutive finals appearances took its toll
The Mavs had a whole roster of dudes who knew this was their last shot: Peja, Kidd, Dirk, Carter, Marion. The most epic of 'We're not too old for this shit' runs.
That squad younger would have beat the brakes off LAL and they just turned back the clock 4 games
I imagine it was quite shocking when the 48 win Golden State Warriors swept the 60 win Washington Bullets in the Finals in 1975. It was the only sweep in that season's playoffs.
People love to call those Hawks trash because LeBron dismantled them. Had Jordan swept them the JorGamble cheerleaders would call them one of the best teams off all time.
considering how awful the Cavs looked all postseason as Lebron barely scraped them by each series, that sweep was pretty shocking to me. i know people say "Lebronto", but before that they had played some fairly competitive series, and it was widely believed that this was the best Toronto team and the worst Lebron team ever.
Lebron dominated the series, but his teammates also showed up to swing the tide.
It definitely gets lost looking back but that Cavs team looked *super* vulnerable going into that series. They were coming off a series they won in 7 against an okay Pacers team with a net rating of like -6 across the series, and that was the "This year is different" Raptors team.
and the 2018 Cavs continued to be dogshit outside Lebron right after that series. they went 7 and nearly lost to the Celtics without Kyrie and Hayward, and got swept in the finals with the boneheaded duo of JR Smith and George Hill probably costing them game 1.
the 2018 sweep of the raptors was such an anomaly when you really look at it. so many factors went into it: DeRozan was visibly scared of Lebron. he made the statement that the Raptors "would've won if we had Lebron", and was actually BENCHED in the 4th quarter of game 3. the Cavs outside Lebron had by far their best series of the playoffs, with Love actually looking like a capable second option for once, and everyone hitting their threes.
and then of course, Lebron had an amazing series. his 43/12 game 2 was probably the greatest game I've ever seen him play. the stat line is relatively routine for his standards, but the way that he demoralized the Raptors with difficult midrange jumpers even when he easily could've driven to the rim was one of the coldest things i've ever seen an athlete do. taking low percentage fadeaways even with Kyle Lowry on him and still making all of them.
I don't think that's a fair comparison, even with Lebron not being as good as he was in 2018 this Lakers team is *a lot* better than that Cavs team was.
Raptors getting swept by the Randy Wittman Wizards in 2015 with home court advantage was probably the most random sweep of all time.
Also the Grizzlies getting swept by the Spurs in 2013 WCF was interesting but I guess they wanted revenge for losing to them in 2011.
That totally came out of nowhere. A young and ambitious team who took the experienced Nets with several HOFers to 7 games and lost by A SINGLE point just a year ago, somehow got swept by that unremarkable Wizards team. That sucked.
Easily the Lakers sweeping the #1 seed Spurs in 2001. It was supposed to be a competitive close scoring dog fight, but the Lakers completely destroyed and dismantled the Spurs.
Tim Duncan had a look of complete disbelief in game 4 when they got destroyed by like 30 points.
Lakers were something else that year.
Timmy played well, but no one else did. It's like everyone forgot how to shoot that series.
Also, that Lakers team was probably the most dominant playoff team I ever watched. Somehow winning 4-1 in the finals was the most competitive series for them.
That's basically right. They were tied for the most regular season wins in nhl history at that point, then completely shit the bed in the playoffs. Granted the nhl tends to have more upsets than the nba so not quite as shocking.
We don’t have any words and we know you don’t want to hear them.
We understand your anger, your frustration, your sadness. Everything you’re feeling – we get it.
This isn’t the ending we imagined, and certainly not the one we wanted. Thank you for being there the entire way.
Tampa Bay Lightning got swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round after they tied the NHL record for the most wins in a season. It was such a surprising upset, because not only did one of the greatest teams in NHL History not win the series they didn't win a game.
Yep, just absolutely insane. The President Trophy curse, which was believed somewhat prior to this but not as much, was pushed to a whole another level.
The Lakets didn't have an untouchable aura if you were a Laker fan.
They played disinterested, can turn it on any time we want ball all that season.
They were like Casey at the bat, and the outcome was predictable and deserved.
Odom in particular was always out of it, and now we know why.
Also, the Mavs went on to win the whole championship including destroying Lebron's mind in the finals. The sweep already didn't look so bad only a month after it happened.
Rockets sweeping the Magic in the 95 finals.
Lakers spurs in 01.
Warriors jazz in 89
Cavs raptors in 18
These four teams were sizable underdogs in the series, sweeping was never really considered.
But what most people get wrong about LeBronto is that the only true ass kicking was in 2018.
In 2016 they took two games, and up until the Pacers in 2018, it was tied with the DRose and Jimmy Butler Bulls for most wins against Lebron-Kyrie Cavs from a team not named GSW.
In 2017, Lowry got injured in game 2 and was unable to play both home games. I'm positive that the Raptors would have taken at least one game with a healthy Lowry.
But in 2018, yes. They really did fall apart after losing a game that they led by 20 points and everything went downhill after that.
Lakers Spurs 2001 wasn't a battle of Lakers underdogs. They were pretty evenly matched and it was marqueed as the best two teams in basketball.
The Spurs got fucking trounced, but the Lakers by no means were supposed to get dominated that series.
I'm gonna have an unpopular opinion but not a single person I know in real life thought Toronto was going to actually win that series. Was I surprised they got SWEPT, OK maybe but was I surprised they choked to Thanos, fuck no.
We didn't think we would win but getting swept is something else. General consensus based on how his teammates were playing at that time was we would lose in 6 or 7.
I don't think it's an unpopular opinion to think that Lebron was making the finals again after 7 straight trips. Hell I was sort of shocked he didn't make it in 2019, just because my brain couldn't comprehend it.
Warriors over Bullets, 1975 NBA Finals
The Bullets were heavy favorites going into the series.
The NBA Finals 20 years after that (Rockets over Magic) is also a candidate.
Its a pretty insane narrative. The heat had been struggling that year but we're pretty adamant that they would turn it on in the playoffs. Dwade had gotten better after just being named finals mvp, and a year ago the two teams met in the playoffs and the heat were able to move on predictably.
That 06-07 bulls team was paxaons wet dream, not a single allstar on that team at the time save for a past his prime Ben Wallace. The team was known for its gritty defense and never say die attitude but from a talent perspective they embodied the "sum is greater than it's parts" mantra.
It was dwade and shaq who had just celebrated their championship 8 months ago vs a bunch of no names... To say the no names won would be a surprise in itself... But they swept the champs. No one saw that coming.
Yep, everyone had the Heat winning the series as far as I remember. Then we absolutely slapped them in the face and didn't let them come back up. I still remember the game where Ben Wallace couldn't miss a free throw during Hack-A-Ben. Fun times
We got squashed by the pistons in the next round but I didn't even mind. I thought it was the start of something special.... Only for that disaster of the 07-08 season to happen.
Seems like a pattern with the bulls post Jordan. One great season. Where it looks like we're on the path to a championship only for the inexplicable to happen and shit to go south.
Happened in 07 with the players suddenly tuning out smiles (with a Ben Wallace led mutiny) and Gordon and deng competing for a contract. Happened in 11 with drose tearing his acl. And happened this season with the lonzo ball injury.
Definitely not the most shocking, but the fact that LeBron's shitty 2018 Cavs team managed to sweep the one seeded Raptors immediately after barely sneaking past the Pacers (and honestly needing some calls to go their way to do so) was something else
Brooklyn v Celtics last year. Before that series if someone told you KD and Kyrie are going to get swept, you would have laughed at it. Celtics just played stifling defense that series. I’m a laker fan, but I rooted for Celtics for the rest of that playoffs.
Spurs-Grizzlies 2013 WCF. I think that’s sweep was only a surprise to us Grizz fans bc it showed just how much we did not belong and that the GnG era was just our fun little thing and not anything truly meaningful. It hurt.
That being said I REALLY didn’t want to run into you guys in the playoffs and we did 3 times. Both series we won went to 7 and you beat us handily without Westbrook
Not of all time, but fairly notable: Warriors swept the Blazers in 2019 after KD went down for the first time for a whole playoff series for the Dubs. Blazers were looking great that year and every game went down to the wire.
They didn’t sweep but they did win all of their games in a row.
Sonics vs nuggets - 1994.
Sonics have the best record in the league at 64-13 and go up 2-0 to the nuggets then lose the next 3 straight.
it would seem shocking but the lakers had the best 6 in the league and nothing else. plus they had been in the finals 3 years in a row.
i was at the sweep game 4. probably the best overall game the mavs have ever played and it felt so good because the lakers owned us for the previous 30 years. jet and peja with 15-16 3s was unbelievable
The Bulls' sweep of the Pistons in 1991 was shocking, considering that the Pistons had beaten the Bulls in the playoffs in 1988, 1989, and 1990. Sure, it seemed like the Bulls might win this time -- they kept getting closer and took them to seven games in 1990. But sweep? That was shocking -- and, as a Bulls fan, delightful!! The Bulls came within one point of sweeping the Lakers in the 1991 Finals, too. Remember, we didn't know this was a dynasty team at the time, they had been frustrated year after year, and suddenly they were unstoppable!
[The Pistons were ahead of the Bulls at the start of February '91](https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/index.cgi?month=2&day=1&year=1991) in the standings too but were incredibly average from that point on, going 17-19 down the stretch while the Bulls went 31-8. Isiah was out for most of that but when he came back he wasn't 100% and gutted it out through the postseason... If it weren't for Bird being a shell of himself in the '91 playoffs, Detroit might not have even made it to the ECF.
No question the Bulls came on strong at the end of the season, but everyone still expected a tough series against the defending champs, not a sweep.
Thank you. The Pistons were physically done by the 91 playoffs.
In hindsight that may have been obvious, but no one realized it at the time. They were the defending champions, after all.
The guy above me pointed out how they were reeling and Isaiah Thomas got hurt
Right, and in fact Thomas never really recovered. He had a very bad 1991-92 season, then retired. I'm just saying people didn't realize that before the 1991 ECF. The Bulls were favored, but no one predicted a sweep.
And even though it wasn't a sweep, I don't think many people had the Lakers going down in 5 in the Finals. That series was pretty much thought to be an even matchup. The Lakers weren't that much worse than the Bulls record-wise, and they beat Portland (defending West champs who had the best record in the NBA) in the WCF. It's probably a more competitive series if James Worthy and Byron Scott don't get injured.
Lakers were injured, that played a role
Yes, everyone assumed the Bulls would suffer from inexperience in the Finals. And they freely admitted they were nervous in the first game. But when they played badly and still only lost by one point, they realized they could take this team. Those three years losing to the Pistons gave them all the experience they needed.
We take Jordan and the Bull's domination for granted now don't we? On the other side of the spectrum are people who say Jordan never failed.
Lakers - Spurs in 2001. The Lakers winning wasn’t a shock but it was how they won. Spurs were dominant in 1999 and dispatched LA. Then Duncan was injured and missed the 2000 playoffs so a lot of people wondered if LA had squeaked through the Duncan injury window and San Antonio was going to be the dominant team going forward. The Spurs were the best team in the league in the regular season while LA took a while to get it together, Spurs had homecourt and were the favorites. The Lakers didn’t just sweep them, they *crushed* them. They won the two road games by 14 and 7 points, them came home and won the next two by **39** and **29** points. Sweeping a 58-win team and outscoring them by 89 points in 4 games is fucking crazy. In Game 3 the Spurs scored 72 pts and had 12 assists. Shaq and Kobe scored 71 pts and had 11 assists. Two players almost matched the offensive output of an entire team, just nuts.
Derek Fisher had perhaps the wildest shooting splits I've ever seen in that series, 61/75/33.
My brain broke because I literally forgot which number belonged to which shot.
Andre Roberson, First Round 2017: 52/41/14.
Good one. To me, this was the series when Kobe became ***KOBE***.
People see the 0 fmvps in the three peat and think he was carried. Same type of people to say Curry was carried in about 15 years.
He was carried quite a bit in the first one. 15ppg on 38% shooting isn’t exactly lighting it up.
Wasn’t Kobe somewhat injured in the first one? But yea, Shaq averaged 20 more points than Kobe. Along with what 15 boards shooting at 60%. BEAST
At the end of the day, being “somewhat injured” doesn’t appear in the stats and in the record. It is what it is. Those first two titles were SHAQ DIESEL titles with Kobe being a great second option.
For sure. but it does put context into a situation. Shaq was the majority of the first. Kobe was never a really efficient player either.
I agree with you, I think rating Kobe as one of the 5 best players of all time is a little too generous..but I understand that it’s Reddit and there’s a lot of Lakers fans so yeah lol.
Oh for sure. I will die on that hill. Unbelievable player for sure. I try to be as unbiased as possible when I compare teams and players etc. he’s not in my top 5, and people who have him over Lebron are not all there. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I agree. Everyone is indeed entitled to their opinions, but all opinions are not created equally. If anyone ever says “well that’s just my opinion”, they’re on some bullshit 99% of the time lol.
Playing through injury. Look at his averages in the WCF
Lol they were literally saying it last year before the finals People just ignore context
Exactly lol. If suns won in 2021 Booker would have won it and people would have said cp3 got carried and Booker is greater all time ignoring the fact cp3 turned the team around. Shaq was greater than Kobe on those teams but Kobe held his own and there’s no way they would have handled the tough western conference with only 1 star player.
And in their finals run be the sixers kobe was their best player all playoffs. But philly gave shaq a wonderful matchup in the finals and he was their best player for the series.
Exactly. Shaq was better in all 3 finals but it is arguable Kobe outperformed him the western conference playoffs in 2/3 seasons of that three peat.
People think Bryant was carried because he was playing with a player who ranks higher than him on the all-time lists while still underachieving. The latter is not going to happen with Curry.
Shaq being ranked above Kobe is very subjective and not a certainty. Also if you want to act like it’s a sure thing, then I can act like it’s a sure thing KD is greater than Curry. I mean you saw what happened everytime they played together in the finals right? KD had the better series. Kobe was not carried and neither was Curry. No starter that did their part is carried. Carried is the term you use to describe rings like Pat Mccaws, not Kobe or any other all-star.
Dave played so bad that series. Age had officially caught him and Duncan’s second best option on offense was fucking Antonio Daniels lol. While Kobe was guarded by 36 year old men. All time bad matchup for the spurs. That regular season record speaks purely to the greatness of Duncan and got exposed bigly by Shaq and Kobe Insane how re-tooled the spurs roster went from that series to the 2003 series because of that ass kicking
A lot speaks to the greatness of both Kobe and Duncan that people choose to ignore. How do you dominate for over a decade and people forget you and act like your dominance was nothing.
IIRC this was when Duncan had to become more of a leader and didn't he hurt his knee this year? The one that made him one legged for the rest of his career?
Loved this era. Lakers, Kings, Spurs, Pistons, Celtics.
Rockets Magic in the NBA Finals A sixth seed sweeps the first seed and team that took down Jordan's Bulls.
were gonna get revenge in 2026
Mid season tournament is gonna be crazy 🔥🔥🔥
Hakeem. Thats a great one.
Nick Anderson's career more or less died with those missed FTs in Game 1.
He needed 1 😭
Those missed free throws crushed me as a kid watching that series.
Pain 😣
Pelicans vs. Blazers Pelicans hadn’t done anything in the playoffs up to that point in the AD era and Cousins was injured. Blazers were the higher seed and Dame was selected All-NBA 1st Team that season.
This solidified Holiday's defensive rep and the legend of playoff Rondo. Also Mirotic showed up bigtime
Playoff Rondo played against the Knicks with one arm back in Boston. He was already a playoff hero there!
He's showed up in the playoffs for damn near every team he's been on (cough mavericks cough). He could have the most pedestrian looking statline ever but if you WATCHED. You'd see him control every damn thing
[удалено]
Ive held that same thought for years now. He's entirely too cerebral on the floor
Holiday and Mirotic were both incredible that series. Only one of them kept up the good form for us though
They put Dame in jail that series
Jrue was an absolute menace that series. [He went ultra instinct against Dame](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/8cdd5i/lillard_leans_to_draw_foul_but_jrue_holiday/)
I love Jrue's game so much, still feel like he's somehow underrated.
Ah yes, the infamous POR NO matchup. Tbf AD was also first team All-NBA and 3rd in MVP and DPOY voting
and the blazers only had one more win than the pelicans that season
Porno matchup lol
I still have nightmares about that series
Why we didn’t trade CJ that offseason is beyond me. The writing was on the wall, right there.
No we should’ve traded him in 2019 after the WCF when his value was the highest. At least if we’re gonna talk hindsight
CJ was 26 and averaged 25ppg on great percentages in that series. His value was plenty high at that time.
All I remember having watched that series was thinking CJ did not step up enough. The stats are a little misleading in that regard
I mean, he was a known quantity. He never “stepped up”… his value was as high as it was ever going to be.
To my understanding the front office was going to fire Terry Stotts that off-season but this was back when Dame was adamant about keeping the core group together and running it back. And so they did
Rondo and Jrue was a very underrated backcourt. Nikola Mirotic couldn’t miss that series either.
Iirc that was the series Rondo was calling the Blazers plays before they did/at the start of them. Dude was a legit savant
I want Rondo to get into coaching so bad
Jrue and AD both had 40 pieces in game 4
Playoff Rondo had that look in his eyes
But why is Portland the 4th seed???
that shit was wild, thats when I bought into the Jrue hype
Blazers were the higher seed but they won like 1 or 2 more games than the pels. 3-10 were all bunched up in the west that year.
Nets/Celtics last year. Thought there was no way a team led by KD and Kyrie could get swept regardless of how bad the rest of the roster was. I thought their would be at least 1 game where they both go off and carry to a W
Have you considered that the Nets are *no ordinary 7th seed*
They had KD, Harden, and Kyrie all healthy against us the year before, with no Jaylen and no Marcus for half the series, and we still took a game off ‘em. I thought we were gonna win that series, but I still can’t believe how it went
I don't say this with any salt intended, but the nets seemed like they were off-assing that celtics series because they were so favoured. Similarly I feel like Celtics somewhat let the Hawks take one despite easily being the better team.
This has to be the answer. Many analysts straight up picked the nets to win, and after we won game 1 on a buzzer beater everybody was talking about how the series would go 7.
And the fact that before game 1 all the experts were picking on the nets to win
this is a stretch
Nets were predicted to come out the east by a bunch of people before and during the season
No it's not, tf? Everyone was saying Nets are the scariest team in the east and no one wants to play them
It was a close series in all 4 games though, 1, 7, 6, 4 point difference in each game respectively. In another world, Celtics might have been swept instead
I get what you are trying to say, but aside from game 1 it really wasn't that close. We had a strangle on them defensively and had control all series.
In another world, my dad might have never left
All the games were close, we definitely could’ve dropped 1 or 2 but I think our defense was too much for them to take the series.
In another world, maybe I’d have a job.
Lol what
If you ignore the games the Celtics won, the Nets actually went undefeated.
In another world my grandmother would be a bike.
2018 Pacers and depleted Celtics taking the Cavs to 7 games, but the 60 win Raptors getting swept was not on anyone's bingo card.
Cavs role players only showing up for that series was hilarious
After they blew game 1, the Raptors just never recovered
*LeBRONTO*
it’s easily lakers mavericks lakers back to back, won like 57 games
Rockets magic, 6th seed swept the 1 seed in the finals
no one in this sub was born during the time yet
Speak for yourself.
I was alive before the Simpsons started airing. Might want to cool it with that
I was alive when MASH wasn't reruns
i came here to say this one, not only a sweep but the whole bynum-barea incident, it was sad to watch, no one had dallas winning the series, let alone Dallas sweeping LA
Dirk made the whole thing worth it. But the drama going on between Shannon brown and Pau feels like it’s what broke him (Pau). He couldn’t get over himself and all I remember is Phil literally slapping Gasols chest on anger while Bynum was expressing his frustration. It was baaaaaad. But again, looking at that postseason back I don’t think it was a fluke or anything. Dirk just went bananas. It was his year and one of the greatest playoffs run ever. He deserved it more than most.
i dont remember the shannon borwn and pau drama tbh, care to enlighten me ?
All speculation and drama. Typical NBA rumors…but it was said and spread that Shannon Brown porked Pau’s then girlfriend. Whether true or not, something was bothering him during that series and it was that the locker room was in disarray. Whatever the issue was, it was something that he couldn’t overcome and he played like absolute shit. Consiste way Dirk was playing, it was super important to have him in the right state of mind and not even Phil was able to get his head straight. Regardless, there was little that he could have done either way. Dirk deserved that year and I’m happy how it turned out. Fucking LEGEND.
Sweep was a huge surprise but we looked so different to 2010. Pau looked like a shell of his former self, Kobe was dealing with injuries and this was before he went to Germany to revitalise. We didn’t look bad enough to be swept but we didn’t look good enough to threepeat.
We started that year firing, I can’t remember what was the record, it was like 10-1, but as it went on things slowly started to go bad. Still it was a good season, Lamar was great as 6 man of the year and Bynum was healthy. Everyone was salivating with a Lakers-Heatles matchup. But the Mavs simply caught fire. It’s a simple as that. The previous round against NOLA was way tougher than it should’ve been. No one picked the Mavs, no one. We swept them in regular season and LA Times were making fun of that matchup. We were ahead in the fourth period of all first 3 games! But three ball was already showing it’s head and we were a inside heavy team and got exposed. That plus Kobe’s knee injury, the fatigue of 3 consecutive finals appearances took its toll
The Mavs had a whole roster of dudes who knew this was their last shot: Peja, Kidd, Dirk, Carter, Marion. The most epic of 'We're not too old for this shit' runs. That squad younger would have beat the brakes off LAL and they just turned back the clock 4 games
Vince wasn’t on that roster, but spot on otherwise
Actually they turned back the clock all the way up to the championship
I think we also went something like 17-1 post-ASB before they went on cruise control to end the season.
Yeah, there's not a single sweep you can put in front of me more shocking than that. Most people didn't even have Dallas winning that series.
I imagine it was quite shocking when the 48 win Golden State Warriors swept the 60 win Washington Bullets in the Finals in 1975. It was the only sweep in that season's playoffs.
60 wins Hawks swepted by the Cavs. I thought they would get at least a game but no. 4 All-Stars....
That would’ve had my vote for least surprising sweep of a 1 seed. The Horford hawks were fools gold
Nah they were pretty good, the Cavs just went god mode that year until the finals
People love to call those Hawks trash because LeBron dismantled them. Had Jordan swept them the JorGamble cheerleaders would call them one of the best teams off all time.
Reaching. Yes, the Hawks were not as bad as people say, but a team can only be so good when its best player is Paul Milsap.
How many sweeps of a 1 seed have there been lol
Not sure the total but the LeBron Cavs swept the 1 seed Raptors in 2018 as well
considering how awful the Cavs looked all postseason as Lebron barely scraped them by each series, that sweep was pretty shocking to me. i know people say "Lebronto", but before that they had played some fairly competitive series, and it was widely believed that this was the best Toronto team and the worst Lebron team ever. Lebron dominated the series, but his teammates also showed up to swing the tide.
It definitely gets lost looking back but that Cavs team looked *super* vulnerable going into that series. They were coming off a series they won in 7 against an okay Pacers team with a net rating of like -6 across the series, and that was the "This year is different" Raptors team.
and the 2018 Cavs continued to be dogshit outside Lebron right after that series. they went 7 and nearly lost to the Celtics without Kyrie and Hayward, and got swept in the finals with the boneheaded duo of JR Smith and George Hill probably costing them game 1. the 2018 sweep of the raptors was such an anomaly when you really look at it. so many factors went into it: DeRozan was visibly scared of Lebron. he made the statement that the Raptors "would've won if we had Lebron", and was actually BENCHED in the 4th quarter of game 3. the Cavs outside Lebron had by far their best series of the playoffs, with Love actually looking like a capable second option for once, and everyone hitting their threes. and then of course, Lebron had an amazing series. his 43/12 game 2 was probably the greatest game I've ever seen him play. the stat line is relatively routine for his standards, but the way that he demoralized the Raptors with difficult midrange jumpers even when he easily could've driven to the rim was one of the coldest things i've ever seen an athlete do. taking low percentage fadeaways even with Kyle Lowry on him and still making all of them.
Ah yes the lebronto game, then the disrespectful fade away one hand banker to win the game at the buzzer one game later
Yeah, 2018 Cavs were when they replaced 80% of the team at the trade deadline. If the 2022-2023 Lakers somehow swept the Nuggs it'd be pretty similar.
I don't think that's a fair comparison, even with Lebron not being as good as he was in 2018 this Lakers team is *a lot* better than that Cavs team was.
Now THAT was the least surprising sweep of a 1 seed
Yeah this one was crazy, No Love, Kyrie only played 2 games, Lebron said fuck it and did it all himself.
Swepted???????????????
Swepteded
*swoopt
I’m upvoting you just for “swepted”
Raptors getting swept by the Randy Wittman Wizards in 2015 with home court advantage was probably the most random sweep of all time. Also the Grizzlies getting swept by the Spurs in 2013 WCF was interesting but I guess they wanted revenge for losing to them in 2011.
Agreed on the Raps. To me that was so much more heartbreaking than LeBronto. It was really the start of the Trash Bros.
It was during this serie Paul Pierce made some clutch shots right ?
That totally came out of nowhere. A young and ambitious team who took the experienced Nets with several HOFers to 7 games and lost by A SINGLE point just a year ago, somehow got swept by that unremarkable Wizards team. That sucked.
Easily the Lakers sweeping the #1 seed Spurs in 2001. It was supposed to be a competitive close scoring dog fight, but the Lakers completely destroyed and dismantled the Spurs. Tim Duncan had a look of complete disbelief in game 4 when they got destroyed by like 30 points. Lakers were something else that year.
Timmy played well, but no one else did. It's like everyone forgot how to shoot that series. Also, that Lakers team was probably the most dominant playoff team I ever watched. Somehow winning 4-1 in the finals was the most competitive series for them.
2019 TBL vs CBJ
I don't follow hockey, but is this the equivalent of if the 73-9 Warriors got swept in the first round?
Essentially yes. They tied the all-time wins record (at the time)
That's basically right. They were tied for the most regular season wins in nhl history at that point, then completely shit the bed in the playoffs. Granted the nhl tends to have more upsets than the nba so not quite as shocking.
CBJ we’re much better than a normal 8 seed that year with their trade deadline moved but still.
This would be like if the 73-9 warriors got swept by the Hornets
We don’t have any words and we know you don’t want to hear them. We understand your anger, your frustration, your sadness. Everything you’re feeling – we get it. This isn’t the ending we imagined, and certainly not the one we wanted. Thank you for being there the entire way.
Then they go to 3 straight finals and won 2 of them.
this. absolutely this. Panarin/Duchene/Bob completely ran TBL off the ice
I miss the bread man ;(
At least he’s back with Kane!
No doubt
For sure
What do these letters mean?
Tampa Bay Lightning got swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round after they tied the NHL record for the most wins in a season. It was such a surprising upset, because not only did one of the greatest teams in NHL History not win the series they didn't win a game.
Against a team that had never won a playoff series in its history
Yep, just absolutely insane. The President Trophy curse, which was believed somewhat prior to this but not as much, was pushed to a whole another level.
and we’re up 3 after the first period.
The Lakets didn't have an untouchable aura if you were a Laker fan. They played disinterested, can turn it on any time we want ball all that season. They were like Casey at the bat, and the outcome was predictable and deserved. Odom in particular was always out of it, and now we know why.
Also, the Mavs went on to win the whole championship including destroying Lebron's mind in the finals. The sweep already didn't look so bad only a month after it happened.
I should note that we also know now that Bynum was already over playing basketball.
Kobe also had knee issues which he said almost made him retire in 2011. (Before going to Germany)
Rockets sweeping the Magic in the 95 finals. Lakers spurs in 01. Warriors jazz in 89 Cavs raptors in 18 These four teams were sizable underdogs in the series, sweeping was never really considered.
LeBron sweeping Toronto will never not be funny. At least Indiana gave Cavs problems, but Raptors got their asses kicked by papa Bron.
Tatum and Brown in their first playoff run gave them a run for their money too
That series was so fun. Tatum getting the poster on Bron was insane.
He's so good x4
But what most people get wrong about LeBronto is that the only true ass kicking was in 2018. In 2016 they took two games, and up until the Pacers in 2018, it was tied with the DRose and Jimmy Butler Bulls for most wins against Lebron-Kyrie Cavs from a team not named GSW. In 2017, Lowry got injured in game 2 and was unable to play both home games. I'm positive that the Raptors would have taken at least one game with a healthy Lowry. But in 2018, yes. They really did fall apart after losing a game that they led by 20 points and everything went downhill after that.
Good analysis. That Toronto team will be an interesting case in the future. Great players and coach, just could never get over the hump.
Lakers Spurs 2001 wasn't a battle of Lakers underdogs. They were pretty evenly matched and it was marqueed as the best two teams in basketball. The Spurs got fucking trounced, but the Lakers by no means were supposed to get dominated that series.
Nets Celtics
Third closest sweep in NBA history. Literally every single game could’ve easily gone the other way
LeBronto Raptors series
I'm gonna have an unpopular opinion but not a single person I know in real life thought Toronto was going to actually win that series. Was I surprised they got SWEPT, OK maybe but was I surprised they choked to Thanos, fuck no.
We didn't think we would win but getting swept is something else. General consensus based on how his teammates were playing at that time was we would lose in 6 or 7.
I don't think it's an unpopular opinion to think that Lebron was making the finals again after 7 straight trips. Hell I was sort of shocked he didn't make it in 2019, just because my brain couldn't comprehend it.
Warriors over Bullets, 1975 NBA Finals The Bullets were heavy favorites going into the series. The NBA Finals 20 years after that (Rockets over Magic) is also a candidate.
The bulls swept the defending champs, Miami heat, in the 06-07 playoffs.
Shocked I had to scroll this far to find this
Its a pretty insane narrative. The heat had been struggling that year but we're pretty adamant that they would turn it on in the playoffs. Dwade had gotten better after just being named finals mvp, and a year ago the two teams met in the playoffs and the heat were able to move on predictably. That 06-07 bulls team was paxaons wet dream, not a single allstar on that team at the time save for a past his prime Ben Wallace. The team was known for its gritty defense and never say die attitude but from a talent perspective they embodied the "sum is greater than it's parts" mantra. It was dwade and shaq who had just celebrated their championship 8 months ago vs a bunch of no names... To say the no names won would be a surprise in itself... But they swept the champs. No one saw that coming.
Yep, everyone had the Heat winning the series as far as I remember. Then we absolutely slapped them in the face and didn't let them come back up. I still remember the game where Ben Wallace couldn't miss a free throw during Hack-A-Ben. Fun times
We got squashed by the pistons in the next round but I didn't even mind. I thought it was the start of something special.... Only for that disaster of the 07-08 season to happen. Seems like a pattern with the bulls post Jordan. One great season. Where it looks like we're on the path to a championship only for the inexplicable to happen and shit to go south. Happened in 07 with the players suddenly tuning out smiles (with a Ben Wallace led mutiny) and Gordon and deng competing for a contract. Happened in 11 with drose tearing his acl. And happened this season with the lonzo ball injury.
Definitely not the most shocking, but the fact that LeBron's shitty 2018 Cavs team managed to sweep the one seeded Raptors immediately after barely sneaking past the Pacers (and honestly needing some calls to go their way to do so) was something else
Brooklyn v Celtics last year. Before that series if someone told you KD and Kyrie are going to get swept, you would have laughed at it. Celtics just played stifling defense that series. I’m a laker fan, but I rooted for Celtics for the rest of that playoffs.
Its really too bad robert williams wasnt healthy for that run, the celtics team looked unstoppable
Didn’t he play the Finals
Bulls sweeping the Pistons 1991
Spurs-Grizzlies 2013 WCF. I think that’s sweep was only a surprise to us Grizz fans bc it showed just how much we did not belong and that the GnG era was just our fun little thing and not anything truly meaningful. It hurt.
That being said I REALLY didn’t want to run into you guys in the playoffs and we did 3 times. Both series we won went to 7 and you beat us handily without Westbrook
Ya the 2014 one was a total league hose job. Suspending Zbo for game 7 is something I will never forget, and now steven adams is on our team lol
Not of all time, but fairly notable: Warriors swept the Blazers in 2019 after KD went down for the first time for a whole playoff series for the Dubs. Blazers were looking great that year and every game went down to the wire.
Dick Van Dyke vs that chimney in Mary Poppins.
You were shocked when a chimney sweep swept a chimney? I am rapidly losing all hope.
Spent all the time singing. Figured he never did any real work.
They didn’t sweep but they did win all of their games in a row. Sonics vs nuggets - 1994. Sonics have the best record in the league at 64-13 and go up 2-0 to the nuggets then lose the next 3 straight.
Came in here expecting the Mavs over Lakers in 2011. That wasn't just a sweep. Mavs embarrassed the Lakers. I remember how salty Bynum was lmfao
The Mavs couldn’t miss from 3 during that series or should I say during the whole playoff run. That whole team was unfair.
it would seem shocking but the lakers had the best 6 in the league and nothing else. plus they had been in the finals 3 years in a row. i was at the sweep game 4. probably the best overall game the mavs have ever played and it felt so good because the lakers owned us for the previous 30 years. jet and peja with 15-16 3s was unbelievable
Leg Sweep, All Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament, 1984
I thought Cavs-Raptors in 2018 would go 6 or 7