The 5: Worst NBA Finals ever

This year’s highly-anticipated NBA Finals rematch between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers hasn’t exactly lived up to the hype through the series’ first three games.

Golden State holds a 2-1 advantage heading into Friday night’s Game 3 in Cleveland. But each game has been a blowout, with two of the contests (Games 2 and 3) being decided by 30 or more points.

It hasn’t been a classic, but there is still time for the series to turn and resemble entertaining basketball.

But it did get us to thinking … what are the five worst NBA Finals series in history (or at least since 1970)?

5. 1994 – Houston Rockets defeat New York Knicks, 4-3

Seriously, a seven-game series on the list? Yes. This was difficult to watch, for many reasons. Many point to this series (and the tactics of Knicks head coach Pat Riley) as the reason the NBA devolved into a brutal, half-court bog.

While all seven games were relatively close (none was decided by more than nine points), neither team scored more than 93 points in a single contest and both teams shot under 43 percent from the series.

Add in the fact that a pivotal Game 5 (won by New York, which gave the Knicks a 3-2 series lead) was overshadowed by the LAPD’s low-speed pursuit of O.J. Simpson and John Starks turning in arguably the single-worst Game 7 performance in organized team sports history (2-of-18 from the field — keep shooting it, John!), this series was garbage!

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4. 1999 – San Antonio Spurs defeat New York Knicks, 4-1

A lockout reduced the 1998-99 season to just 50 games.

The Knicks barely squeaked into the playoffs, going 27-23, a game ahead of the Charlotte Hornets for the final Eastern Conference spot. Jeff Van Gundy’s team got hot when it counted though, beating Miami in a memorable best-of-five first-round series, sweeping Atlanta in the conference semis and knocking off Indiana in the Eastern Finals in six games.

They’d face the Spurs, who tied for the league’s best record at 37-13, and carried a 10-game playoff winning streak into the Finals.

This series was another offensive eyesore — New York shot under 40 percent from the floor and averaged 79.8 points per game in the five-game series — and the duo of Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston was responsible for 60 percent of that! Forward Larry Johnson channeled his inner-Starks and went 2-for-18 from the 3-point line (in the series, not one game) and averaged just 7.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.

And, maybe most painful to those of us in Phoenix, this championship was the start of San Antonio’s reign of terror. They’d go on to win five rings over the next 16 seasons.

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3. 2002- Los Angeles Lakers defeat New Jersey Nets, 4-0

The Nets were the best team in a watered-down Eastern Conference (that’s quite the long-term theme in the NBA, now isn’t it?) in the 2002-03 season, winning 52 games. Coached by Byron Scott, New Jersey had a balanced offensive attack paced by Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Kerry Kittles and Keith Van Horn, who all averaged between 13 and 15 points per game.

But the Nets were no match for the mighty Lakers, who were the two-time defending league champions and fueled by in-their-prime superstars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

About midway through the first quarter of Game 1, it became clear how this series would go. The Lakers jumped out to a 42-19 lead and then hung on for a 99-94 win. They blew out New Jersey in Game 2, then went back east and finished them off at the Meadowlands for a third straight title.

O’Neal averaged 36.3 points and 12.3 rebounds per game to claim the series MVP honors.

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2. 2007 – San Antonio Spurs defeat Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-0

This series marked LeBron James’ first NBA Finals appearance. Only 23 at the time, he dragged a roster “featuring” the likes of Drew Gooden, Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic and Damon Jones to the Finals against a Spurs team made up of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and defensive ace Bruce Bowen.

While the Cavs were huge underdogs, the games of the series were relatively close. The Spurs’ average margin of victory was just 5.5 points, but certainly not indicative of the separation between the two squads.

James struggled. He shot only 35 percent from the floor, and averaged nearly six turnovers per game.

Game 4 also didn’t turn out well for gamblers. Damon Jones hit a meaningless three-pointer at the buzzer to cut a four-point San Antonio lead to just one, 83-82. The Spurs were favored by three. D’oh!

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1. 2014 – San Antonio Spurs defeat Miami Heat, 4-1

The Spurs’ fifth NBA championship may have been their most impressive as they put on a clinic against James and his Miami squad, winning in five pretty non-competitive games.

San Antonio won Game 1, 110-95, behind 21 points and 10 rebounds from Duncan. Miami bounced back to win Game 2 at AT&T Center, 98-96. That’s where the intrigue in this series ended.

The Spurs steamrolled the Heat over the next three games, winning all three by an average margin of 19 points per contest to win the championship and avenge the seven-game loss to the Heat in the Finals the previous season.

San Antonio forward Kawhi Leonard was named the Finals MVP as he averaged 17.8 points and 6.4 rebounds while playing shut-down defense throughout the series.

The game was the final one for Miami’s “Big Three” of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. James, of course, had bolted from Cleveland in the summer of 2010 to form Miami’s super team and counted out seven championships they’d win. While Miami did make the NBA Finals four consecutive years, they ended up winning just two rings in that span.

James re-signed with the Cavaliers a few weeks after the conclusion of this series.

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