To make the NBA Finals, you need to be a good team. However, some teams deserved to be there more than others for various reasons: some teams were the product of getting hot at the right time, others of upsets, and some of potentially unfair officiating.
Here is a list of ten teams that made the NBA Finals but didn’t deserve to.
Which teams clearly did not deserve to make it to the NBA Finals?
1980-81 Houston Rockets
The 1980-81 Houston Rockets made the NBA Finals as the sixth (and final) team from the Western Conference to make the playoffs, finishing the regular season with a 40-42 record. The team was led by Moses Malone, who averaged 27.8 points per game (PPG) and 14.8 rebounds per game (RPG).
Malone led the team past the Los Angeles Lakers in three games during the First Round before defeating the San Antonio Spurs in seven games in the Conference Semifinals. In the Conference Finals, the Rockets defeated the Kansas City Kings (a team that had also gone 40-42 on the season) in five games before losing in six games to Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics.
2006-07 Cleveland Cavaliers
The 2006-07 Cavaliers were the only team that LeBron James led to the NBA Finals during his first stint with the team. Given the roster, it is a testament to his ability that James was able to lead the team to a winning record, let alone the Finals. The Cavaliers finished the season with a 50-32 record and were the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
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During the season, James averaged 27.3 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 6.0 assists per game (APG). However, his supporting cast was lackluster at best, with Larry Hughes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, or Drew Gooden as the second-best players on the team —not a list that inspires confidence.
In the playoffs, the Cavaliers swept the Washington Wizards in the First Round before defeating the New Jersey Nets in six games in the Conference Semifinals and the Detroit Pistons in six games in the Conference Finals. The Cavaliers were finally stopped by the San Antonio Spurs, who swept the team in their first NBA Finals appearance.
1998-99 New York Knicks
The first eight seed to ever make the NBA Finals, the 1998-99 New York Knicks’ playoff run was a product of the league’s weakened stability following the NBA Lockout at the beginning of the season. In the 50-game season, the Knicks went 27-23, led by an aging Patrick Ewing and Latrell Sprewell, both of whom missed significant time.
The Knicks defeated the Miami Heat in five games during the First Round, swept the Atlanta Hawks in the Conference Semifinals, and defeated the Indiana Pacers in six games during the Conference Finals. During Game 2 of the Conference Finals, the team lost Patrick Ewing for the rest of the season to an Achilles tear, which would hurt them majorly in the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, who were led by their big men, Hall of Famers David Robinson and Tim Duncan.
The Knicks would lose the NBA Finals in five games, despite Sprewell averaging 26.0 PPG and Allan Houston adding 21.6 PPG for the series. The team had no All-Stars, nobody made an All-NBA Team, and the only true star the team had was Patrick Ewing, who was beyond his prime.
2022-23 Miami Heat
The second team to make the NBA Finals as an eighth seed is also the most recent team to make the list. The 2022-23 Miami Heat finished the season with a 44-38 record, good enough for seventh in the Eastern Conference, but they lost in the play-in tournament to the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks before defeating the tenth-seeded Chicago Bulls to make the playoffs as the eighth seed.
In the First Round, the Heat, led by Jimmy Butler, upset the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that was coming off of their second championship as a franchise the year prior and that had just won 58 games in five games before knocking off the New York Knicks in six games. In the Conference Finals, they faced the Boston Celtics, a team that had won 57 games of their own, and the Heat opened the series by taking a 3-0 lead; the Celtics would battle back to force a Game 7 at their home court where they were trounced by the Heat 103-84.
In the NBA Finals, the Heat faced the Denver Nuggets, who were led by Nikola Jokic and were handily beaten 4-1. The 22-23 Heat were a good team, but Jimmy Butler could only carry them so far.
1958-59 Minneapolis Lakers
From the most recent team on this list to the oldest, the 1958-59 Minneapolis Lakers were another team that made the NBA Finals with a losing record. They went 33-39 on the season before facing off in the Conference Semifinals against the Detroit Pistons. The Lakers defeated the Pistons in three games before facing the St. Louis Hawks, the defending NBA Champions, in the Conference Finals, where they would win in six games.
In the NBA Finals, the Lakers faced off against the Boston Celtics, a team they had lost to all nine times they had faced off against each other during the season. Nothing would change during the Finals, as the Celtics swept the Lakers to win the championship.
The 58-59 Lakers were led by rookie Elgin Baylor, who proved that he was going to be a great player during their playoff run. Unfortunately, he was unable to carry the team to a championship, something that would become common throughout his career.
2000-01 Philadelphia 76ers
The 2000-01 Philadelphia 76ers are remembered mainly for one thing: being the Allen Iverson show. “The Answer,” as he was known, won MVP fairly easily over Tim Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal, averaging a ridiculous 31.1 PPG and leading the NBA in steals per game (SPG) with 2.5.
The team defeated the Indiana Pacers in four games during the First Round before facing Vince Carter and his Toronto Raptors during the Conference Semifinals, where the 76ers won in seven games. In the Conference Finals, the 76ers beat the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games to make their first NBA Finals since Moses Malone and Julius Erving led the team in the 1980s.
In the NBA Finals, the 76ers faced off against the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, who Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant led. Despite Iverson’s best efforts, including a 48-point performance in Game 1, the Lakers won the series in five games.
The team was by far the best that the 76ers had during Iverson’s time in Philadelphia, but that didn’t change the fact that outside of Iverson, the team’s next-best player was an aging Dikembe Mutombo.
1975-76 Phoenix Suns
The 1975-76 Phoenix Suns went 42-40 on the season, good enough for the third seed in the Western Conference. Led by Paul Westphal and rookie Alvan Adams, the team was not expected to do anything in the playoffs and appeared to be a team that would be a contender in the following years.
In the Conference Semifinals, the Suns faced off against the second-seeded Seattle Supersonics and won in six games. They then faced the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the Conference Finals and won in seven games. In the NBA Finals, the Suns faced off against the Boston Celtics and lost in six games, including a highly controversial Game 5 that went into three overtimes and was won by the Celtics.
The 75-76 Suns were a good team, but one that was built for the future, not that season, and would not return to the NBA Finals until 1993.
2001-02 New Jersey Nets
The 2001-02 New Jersey Nets played in an extremely shallow Eastern Conference throughout the early 2000s. Led by Jason Kidd, the team went 52-30 in the regular season and was rewarded with the first seed in the conference.
In the First Round, the Nets defeated the Indiana Pacers in five games, and they followed it up by defeating the Charlotte Hornets in five games in the Conference Semifinals. In the Conference Finals, the Nets defeated the Boston Celtics in six games to set up a meeting in the NBA Finals with the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
The Nets’ run through the playoffs ended in the NBA Finals, as they were swept by the Lakers in four games. Overall, they were a good team, but not one that could compete with the power concentrated in the Western Conference.
2001-02 Los Angeles Lakers
Facing off against the previous team on the list, the 2001-02 Los Angeles Lakers are the only team on this list who won the NBA Finals. The team was a continuation of the early 2000s Lakers dynasty, which was led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
The Lakers were obviously a very good team, but that is not why they are on the list. It is the way they made the NBA Finals, that is.
In the regular season, the Lakers finished with a record of 58-24, which was good enough for the third seed in the Western Conference. In the First Round, they swept the Portland Trail Blazers, and they defeated the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs in five games in the Conference Semifinals to set up a series that was predicted to determine the champion against the Sacramento Kings.
In that series, the Kings, led by Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic, pulled out a 3-2 lead over the Lakers before Game 6, which was one of the most controversial in NBA history due to the referees seemingly favoring the Lakers. The Lakers won the last two games of the series and swept the New Jersey Nets in the NBA Finals to win their third championship in a row.
However, had the referees not favored the Lakers, the Kings very well could have won in six games and then won their second championship as a franchise.
2002-03 New Jersey Nets
One year later, the New Jersey Nets found themselves in the NBA Finals again, once again led by Jason Kidd. In the regular season, they went 49-33, good enough for the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
In the First Round, the Nets defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in six games, and then they swept the Boston Celtics in the Conference Semifinals. In the Conference Finals, the Nets swept the first-seeded Detroit Pistons to book their second straight trip to the NBA Finals.
This time, they would fare better than they did the year before, where the Los Angeles Lakers swept them, but they would still lose to the San Antonio Spurs, who were led by NBA MVP Tim Duncan, in six games. Another solid team for the Nets, but in the early 2000s, the Eastern Conference was no match for the Western Conference, who had four teams that were arguably better than anyone in the East: the Lakers, Spurs, Sacramento Kings, and Dallas Mavericks.
