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In NBA history, the name of the regular season winners at the end of the championship season is far from guaranteed: Only 34 of the 74 (46%) players from the top former regular season teams raised the hand after the final series.
While they don’t always win trophies, most teams that dominate the playoffs during a long season can get through at least two or three stages and, in the worst case, drop out of the conference finals or lose the grand final.
However, throughout the league’s history, there have been seven teams that have won the regular season but haven’t even reached the East or West conference finals in decisive battles.
2019-2020 Season Bucks are among those. Mike Budenholzer’s team achieved 56 wins in the regular season and lost only 17 times, but in the conference semifinals they fell 0: 3 after the first three games, and even after winning the victory in the fourth game and losing the Giannis Antetokounmp’s challenge to Miami.
15 minutes features the rest of the NBA regular season winners who have experienced a fiasco in the playoffs.
“Baltimore Bullets” (1968-1969 m. Sezonas)
The predecessors of the current Washington Wizards in 1968. received a real treat in the rookie swap: the Baltimore team walked up to the spectacular 201cm tall Wesu Unseldu physical data center.
With this newcomer, the Bullets achieved 57 wins in the first season and became the best team of the regular season, and W. Unnseld, who left Anapilin a few months ago at the time, was chosen as the newcomer of the year and entered in the top five players of the season.
Scanpix Photo / Wes Unseld (attacking)
However, the Baltimore team got wet in the playoffs – already in the first leg of the then Eastern Division, the “Bullets” dropped the New York Knicks 0: 4 and ended the trip to the trophy early.
“Portland Trail Blazers” (1977-1978 m. Sezonas)
Trail Blazers 1974 Invited future league MVP Bill Walton, who peaked with the team in 1976-1977, with the first draft of the rookie trade. in the season, when he won the statuette of the most useful player of both the regular season and the final series and won the champion ring.
With high hopes, the Blazers moved on to next season, which the Portland team started off fantastically, winning the first 50 of 60 games and sparking talk of an emerging dynasty.
However, that’s when what was often called the Blazers’ crossings curse happened: Walton broke his leg, and as a result, one of the NBA’s greatest midfielders of all time didn’t just spend the rest of the time. the season, but also struggled for the rest of his career.
The Blazers finished the regular season with 8 wins in 22 games and, despite beating all other teams, they were eliminated in the playoffs by the first competitor in the Seattle SuperSonics Western Conference semifinals to beat their 4 opponents: two.
By the way, B. Walton played the last game of that season with the Blazers jersey – the center asked for a trade for improper treatment, he spent all of 1978-1979. season, eventually leaving Portland as a free agent.
“Los Angeles Lakers” (1989-1990 m. Sezonas)
From 1980 to 1989 The legendary club, which had played eight times in the NBA Finals, expected to return to the decisive series in the 1990s, when not even veteran Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had lost his career in the season regular, had the same. during the playoffs.
However, these were marked by a fiasco. In the first round, Pat Riley’s students crossed the barrier of the Houston Rockets, but in the second there was no opportunity against the Phoenix Suns: the Lakers, led by Magico Johnson, fell 1: 4.
Photo by Scanpix / Magic Johnson
This season was the last time an iconic figure, Riley, was in command of the Los Angeles team, bringing four NBA championship titles to the California club.
It’s true that within a year, the Lakers and new coach Mike Dunleavy will return to the NBA Finals, but only to see Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls triumph.
“Seattle SuperSonics” (1993-1994 m. Sezonas)
Sonics, which has been on the rise since the early 1990s, with Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton at the forefront, peaked in the regular season in 1993-1994. season in which he won 63 games.
„Scanpix“ nuotr./Gary Paytonas
The start of the playoffs didn’t bother George Karl’s students: They won the first two games against the Denver Nuggets and led 2-0 in a three-win series.
However, the Nuggets, who won Game 3 at home, rose up and, led by the defensive wall, Dikembe Mutombo was able to do what no other team had done before in the regular season: eliminate the regular season winners. Denver won the series 3: 2.
After moving to Oklahoma in 2008 and becoming a Thunder club, Sonics never played such a good regular season again, but they still managed to play in the NBA Finals. they dropped the Bulls 2: 4.
Dallas Mavericks (2006-2007 season)
It was the year that the NBA world finally realized what the Dirk Nowitzki German clay diamond was carved for.
2006 In the final, the leader of the Mavs, who descended in the Heat club, was chosen as the most useful basketball player of the regular season and became the first European to do so, and the Dallas club was unstoppable: he managed 67 wins and posted the sixth-best regular-season result in NBA history.
Unfortunately, D. Nowitzki failed to withdraw the MVP award when the Mavericks players could already go on vacation: they were eliminated in the first leg by the Golden State Warriors with the episodic Šarūnas Jasikevičius, who beat the Mavericks club 4: 2 .
„Scanpix“ nuotr./Dirkas Nowitzki
After relegation in the first stage, Mavs became the winner of the regular season who was the first to abandon the title fight. Additionally, the Dallas team is one of two clubs (along with the 2015-2016 San Antonio Spurs) that have won at least 64 games in the regular season but have not even reached the conference finals.
Nowowitzki finally silenced the critics four years later, when the Mavericks dropped the Heat in the final and won the first title in club history.
“Cleveland Cavaliers” (2009-2010 m. Sezonas)
The latest case (excluding Bucks) of the regular season winners fiasco, which Lithuanian basketball fans painfully remember.
Led by LeBron James, the Cavs with Žydrūnas Ilgauskas became the best club of the regular season for the second season in a row, and they were hoping to make a fuss in the playoffs after losing the Eastern Conference final in spring 2009.
Unfortunately, the King and Lithuania were already blocked by the seasoned Boston Celtics team with big four Kevin Garnet, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and District Rondo in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Anderson Varejao, LeBron James, Žydrūnas Ilgauskas
Up to 44.7 percent. After stopping James from the game and 26.8 points during the match, the Celtics won the series 4: 2 and then marched to the finals, where the Lakers landed in a seven-game series.
And since Cleveland, that loss deprived not only of the opportunity to win the NBA Champions Cup, but also LeBron, who brought his talent to Miami. Ž.Ilgauskas also went to sunny Florida along with the King.
It is true that James returned to Cleveland and in 2016 he corrected past mistakes by winning the NBA Finals.
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