5 Teams that were lucky to reach the NBA Finals

The Finals are supposed to be the battle of the strongest, the teams that make it through the grind of the arduous regular season and playoffs and battle for supremacy for NBA's biggest honors, the NBA Championship.

While the Finals regularly have spectacular plays that are jaw-dropping and rewrite history books, be it overcoming the 3-1 deficit by the 2016 Cavs or the post season heroics by Robert Horry or the domination of the Jordan led Chicago Bulls in the 90's, they have had their share of lopsided contests as well. These are five of the teams that did not deserve to reach NBA Finals.

#1 2018 - Cleveland Cavaliers

No prizes for guessing this. This team will go down in history as one of the worst teams to make it to the Finals. Cavs, having lost one of their main stars Irving in a bizarre trade request to the Celtics, saddled themselves with a battled but dysfunctional roster which made repeated changes throughout the season.

Radical changes like adding certified superstars Dwayne Wade, Isaiah Thomas & shuttling them out before the trade deadline for a bevy of younger legs like Clarkson, Nance, and Rodney Hood, while made the team younger, upset the chemistry of the team and it reflected on the up and down season of the Cavs.

Coming off a 50-32 season and standing 4th in the Eastern Conference, the only reason the Cavaliers made it to the finals was on the back of a superhuman postseason by LeBron James. King James averaged 34, 10 and 8.5 Assists in the finals while averaging around 44 mins per game. After almost stealing Game one, minus a brain freeze from JR Smith, the rest of the finals went down quickly and almost predictably to end with a sweep for the Warriors.

#2 1999 – New York Knicks

In a lockout-shortened season in 1999, the Knicks became one of the few 8th seeds to win a playoff series and advance all the way to the Finals.

Beating the top seed Miami in a slugfest, the Knicks powered their way through the Eastern Conference to reach the finals and meet the clinical and talented Spurs roster where a young Tim Duncan was making his presence felt.

All the Knicks were not talent light with the likes of Sprewell, Larry Johnson, and Allan Houston. The path through the East while victorious was costly as they lost Ewing to injury and also Johnson battled an injury which limited his performance.

Facing the dynamic duo of Duncan and Robinson without Ewing was always going to be an uphill battle for the untested Marcus Camby and the series, barring a Game 3 victory for the Knicks in front of a raucous Garden crowd quickly turned into a one-sided affair with a 1-4 series loss for the Knicks who would never make it to the Finals post that.

#3 2001 – Philadelphia 76ers

The 2001 NBA Finals was the perfect setting for David vs Goliath. When the Sixers who held the Eastern Conference top seed with outstanding performances from their star Allen Iverson who had a breakout year in leading the league in points and steals and got plenty of contribution during the regular season from Dikembe Mutombo, who lead the league in rebounding.

However, the finals were a different story even though Allen Iverson cemented his place in history books with a Game 1 performance of the ages and leading all scorers with 48 points for the game and 35 PPG for the series.

While stealing Game 1, in what was turning out to be a hotly contested OT win, Iverson & the Sixers were quickly cut to size as they were no match physically and in talent against the dynamic duo of Kobe and Shaq, who combined averaged over 54 points & 22 rebounds in the series and the series ended at 4-1 & the 2001 Sixers will easily go down as one of the weakest teams to ever enter an NBA Finals.

#4 2009 – Orlando Magic

The 2009 NBA Finals pitted the Orlando Magic against a resurgent Kobe and the Lakers. Marshaled by Phil Jackson, the Lakers were a well-strung unit of supporting cast to the brilliance of Kobe, with players like Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol, and Odom.

Magic had done well to the surprise the previous year champions, Celtics in a dramatic seven-game series and also the Eastern Conference top seed Cavs with regular season MVP LeBron on the back of some brilliant gameplay by their center Dwight Howard and forwards Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.

However, while they exploited Dwight Howard's physical presence on various mismatches throughout their Eastern Conference run, they fell woefully short in the Finals with the tough defense of the Lakers and the lack of consistent outside shooting.

Only a record-breaking performance from them in Game 3 avoided a Finals sweep. The win was finally completed by the infamous buzzer beater by Derek Fisher and dominant offensive plays by Kobe. The Magic fell apart post this and never made it to the finals and can be easily termed as one of the weakest teams to ever reach the NBA finals.

#5 2007 – Cavaliers

If the 2018 sweep was lopsided, the previous sweep earlier to that also has the distinction of having LeBron on the losing side. The 2007 Cavs led by a young LeBron James to his first trip to the Finals.

It came off a dramatic Eastern Conference final, beating a more fancied Detroit Pistons team and bringing the spotlight on a superstar career with a Game 5 performance of the ages.

However, with a supporting cast of Larry Hughes, Sasha Pavalovic, Drew Gooden and the Big Z, there was only so much this Cavs team was going to do against the well oiled, perfectly coached machine of the Spurs with future HOFers like Duncan, Parker & Ginobili.

The finals were ugly, with the Cavs failing to score over 100 points in either of the games and the 2nd leading scorer on the team was Drew Gooden with 12.8 points & was one of the all-time lowest rated Finals for TV audiences as well.

SK High Hoops - Write and win amazing prizes. Click here to know more!

Edited by Abhinav Munshi