By Jack Aievoli
May 31st, 2023
“This is what it’s all about1”
“The greatest 2 words in sports: ‘Game 7!’”
“These guys are born for this, these moments!”
We all love Game 7s, especially to get into the Finals.
The whole season on the line. A chance at Immortality. 48 minutes, maybe OT, to make your Legacy.
And then you completely flubber-wonk it. You’re not just bad, you’re hopeless, you’re never really in the game, ya. just. Ain’t. Got. It.
You’re the 2023 Celtics. But you’re also the 2018 Celtics, the 2013 Pacers, the 2012 Celtics, and the 2001 Bucks: Ya made it to game 7. Ya left it all on the floor. But so do the Donkeys on Donkey Basketball night … sometimes whatcha leave on the floor needs to be removed, the tarnished areas bleached, and the event forgotten.
Since 2000, the Eastern Conference Finals have gone the full seven games 8 times. Of those 8 times, only 2 featured tight game 7s: Boston won in Miami by 4 in 2022, and then we go all the way back to Pistons-Heat in 2005, with the Pistons beating the Heat by 6 to end a grinding series.
In between, there were 2 game 7s, the Lebron-DWade Heat smacked the Pacers in 2013 by 23, and the Celtics by 13 in 2012.
Mostly, these “must see” Game 7s have been blowouts.
(Why Celtics of multiple generations seems to usually get walloped in Game 7, and the fact that the Heat keep popping up, are topics for future discussion.)
The Western Conference does nothing to break the post-2000 anti-climatic Game 7 pattern.
There have only been 2 seven game series in the WC finals since 2000: The Warriors-OKC 2016 epic, and the Lakers-Kings OT classic in 2002.
But the 2016 Game 7 was a let down after Klay’s theatrics in Game 6, as the Golden Kids beat a deflated Thunder team by 10.
The 2002 Game 7 Kobe-Shaq victory over the Chris Webber/Vlade Divac/PreRoid Mike Bibby Kings is an all-time Game 7, and would save all the junk after it … if the Kings had won.
Darn those refs all over again.
Over the last 23 years of conference championship basketball, we’ve had 10 Game Sevens, 3 have been close, and 2 of those happened before 2006.
If “Nothing’s Better” than those Game 7s, we’ll take nothing.
AfterMath
Conference and Finals Championships are the measure of great franchises, and we know: it’s the Lakers and the Celtics, right? Then the Bulls and Warriors, and the Spurs have to be up there, correct?
Incorrect. It’s Lakers, by a lot, but then … the Miami Heat. The Celtics and Bulls tie for 3rd. The Spurs and the Warriors are after thoughts.
The Heat have only been around since 1988; all the others have been around since at least 1970. We throw out everything before 1970 – prior to which there were no separate conferences, and lots of scrubs – and use this simple equation: (conference championships + finals championships)/total years in the league.
On that basis, while still not hanging with the Lakers, sorry, Celts, Bulls, Larry and Mike … the Heat are the best team, ever, in the East. And while we’re tempted to count them out against the Rocky Mountain that is Jokic and the Nuggets, history says we shouldn’t.
