The Warriors were the burgeoning juggernaut, winners of 52 of their first 57 games. Oklahoma City Thunder | 2016 regular seasonįor a game on a sleepy, cold Saturday night in late February, the stakes were cranked to unusual levels.
#BEST GAMES OF 2016 NBA SERIES#
The Blazers lost that series a few nights later, but who cares? - Austin TedescoĦ. His pull-up banked in over Marion, and Portland held on for the win. On the next possession, Roy came down and did what he always had done best: He created just enough space. He drilled a bold, and-one 3-pointer over Shawn Marion before swan-diving to the floor, injecting Andre Miller with maybe the NBA's most endearing high step. Then Roy scored or assisted on 12 of the Blazers' next 15 field goals as they erased the Mavs' impossible lead in the fourth quarter. "I just went into that game like, 'Who cares?'" Roy told J.A. Portland was down 21 points before Roy sank a 3 at the end of the third quarter, trying to keep the 2-1 series from slipping away entirely.
Just a few days before this iconic Game 4 performance, he had to keep himself from crying after logging sparse minutes in Game 2. The three-time Blazers All-Star had been demoted to a bench role in the middle of the season after returning from double knee surgery. Portland Trail Blazers | 2011 playoffs Round 1, Game 4īrandon Roy knows they weren't all good shots, but he took them anyway. Would that trade have happened if OKC faced a less formidable Boston team in the Finals? We will never know. And OKC? Months after losing to LeBron in the Finals, the Thunder traded James Harden to the Rockets. James won his first championship against the Thunder in 2012, and Miami repeated the following season. Ray Allen left for Miami that summer, then Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were traded to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013, breaking up Boston's own Big 3. The dominoes from this game also are intriguing. James' legacy was on the line, and he delivered. Remember, this was the same Heat team that lost in the NBA Finals the previous year and was one loss away from having nothing to show for its splashy Big 3. This one was all about LeBron James' dominant 45-point, 15-rebound performance in a must-win matchup, helping the Heat force a Game 7 at home. Miami's 19-point margin of victory underrates why this was such a good game. Boston Celtics | 2012 Eastern Conference finals, Game 6 The list features career-defining playoff moments and a couple of the most entertaining regular-season games of all time.Ĩ. Now it's time for our list of the greatest games.įor this ranking, our panel gave their top three picks for the best games from the 2009-2010 season through 2018-19. On Monday, Kirk Goldsberry ranked the 10 best shooters. With a new NBA decade about to begin, ESPN's panel of experts is breaking down the very best moments of the 2010s. What were the best NBA games of the past 10 seasons? Ranking the eight best NBA games of the 2010s
#BEST GAMES OF 2016 NBA UPGRADE#
Now if only they had kept Kyle Korver.You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser Whoever faces them in the first round won’t find them easy to deal with at all. This game just showed how much mental fortitude the Hawks have.
They nearly went to a fifth overtime, but Courtney Lee came up short on a 3-point attempt. The Hawks and Knicks couldn’t match the Indianapolis Olympians and Rochester Royals’ record of six overtimes played, but after four hours, they were spent.
Carmelo Anthony had an outstanding game too, scoring 45 points and extending the game twice in a losing effort. His stat line was epic, as he finished with 37 points and 19 rebounds, falling three assists shy of a triple-double, while also adding a steal and a block.
#BEST GAMES OF 2016 NBA FULL#
Millsap paced everybody in minutes, logging a full hour of playing time. At a time when Millsap was the subject of rampant trade speculation, this might’ve been the game where the Hawks decided to keep him and let other teams try to pry him away from their cold, dead fingers.