After knocking off the well-backed defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals, the San Antonio Spurs were immediately installed as the overwhelming favorite to win the NBA Finals. But after the first two games in Texas, it’s clear that Victor Wembanyama and Co. left a lot on the court in that seven-game thriller, and Jalen Brunson’s Knicks have taken full advantage.
The underdogs stormed to a stunning ten-point victory in Game 1 to claim the early Finals. They then stole Game 2 as well, winning by just one point after a stellar 21 point 13 rebound display from Karl-Anthony Towns. Now, it is the Knicks who online betting sites make the clear favorite to claim a first Larry O’Brien in over half a century.
The latest odds from Sportaza online sportsbook make the team a whopping -450 favorite to convert their 2-0 lead into a championship, with Wemby and the Spurs now out at +350. And considering the fact that just five teams in NBA history have ever overturned a 2-0 series deficit, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.
Two of them — the 1969 Boston Celtics and the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers — accomplished it so long ago that the footage is in black and white. But what about the three since them? Let’s take a look.
Miami Heat vs. Dallas Mavericks, 2006
Dallas had 60 wins, had dismantled San Antonio in seven games, and arrived with Dirk Nowitzki looking genuinely unstoppable — a transformational big man who could score from anywhere on the floor, backed by Jason Terry, Josh Howard, and a deep bench that gave Avery Johnson options at every turn. Miami had Dwyane Wade ascending and a veteran Shaquille O’Neal in the post. But the Heat were the shakier outfit, and the series seemed to confirm it immediately.
Game 1 went to Dallas 90-80, Terry scoring 32 despite Nowitzki shooting 4-of-14. Game 2 was worse — Dallas won 99-85 as Nowitzki posted 26 and 16 while O’Neal was held to just five points, the lowest-scoring playoff game of his career. Dallas newspapers reportedly printed championship parade routes. Mark Cuban was said to have discussed what he’d wear at the trophy presentation. Two games in, and the celebration had already started.
What happened next was Dwyane Wade seizing a series by the throat and refusing to let go. Dallas led by nine entering the fourth quarter of Game 3 back in Miami, only for Wade to score 15 points in that quarter alone, finishing with 42 as the Heat closed on a 22-7 run to win 98-96. He would then drill 36 more in Game 4 with Shaq getting in on the act with a double-double, tying the series at 2-2.
Game 5 headed back to Dallas, and Wade sank two free throws with 1.9 seconds of overtime remaining to win 101-100, finishing with 43 points in a performance that no box score adequately captures. In Game 6, he scored 36 more, and the Heat won 95-92 as Nowitzki — who had looked unstoppable for two weeks — managed just two fourth-quarter points from the foul line as the lights got brightest.
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors, 2016
Golden State came into the 2016 playoffs at 73-9 — still the best regular-season record in NBA history. Steph Curry, the unanimous MVP. Klay Thompson. Draymond Green. A system so deep that when Curry and Thompson combined for just 20 points in Game 1, Shaun Livingston scored 20 off the bench and the reserves outscored Cleveland 45-10 in a 104-89 win anyway. Game 2 was worse: Golden State won 110-77. When Curry dropped 38 in Game 4 to push the Warriors to 3-1, the Cavaliers’ obituary was being written in real time.
Then Draymond Green suspended himself. Not technically — the league did it — but Green’s flagrant foul accumulation, his inability to stop being exactly who he is in the worst possible moments, handed Cleveland the opening. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving each scored 41 in a 112-97 demolition in Game 5 in Oakland. LeBron put up 41 again in Game 6.
Game 7. On the road. LeBron’s 27-point triple-double. His chase-down block on Andre Iguodala’s fast-break layup with under two minutes left — a single play that remains one of the most iconic moments in the sport’s history, not for its aesthetics but for what it refused to allow. Then Kyrie Irving, 53 seconds remaining, catching a screen and burying a three over Curry to put Cleveland up 92-89.
Final: 93-89. A 52-year major sports championship drought erased. The first team in NBA history to erase a 3-1 Finals deficit had, somehow, started by being down 2-0.
Milwaukee Bucks vs. Phoenix Suns, 2021
Phoenix had been the best team in basketball for four months. They swept the Lakers, eliminated the Nets in seven, dispatched the Clippers in six, and arrived at their first Finals since 1993, having beaten Milwaukee twice in the regular season — each time by a single point.
Chris Paul was orchestrating everything. Devin Booker was erupting. DeAndre Ayton was dominating the paint. Milwaukee got there on a far rougher road, with Giannis Antetokounmpo missing two Eastern Conference Finals games with a hyperextended knee, and the question hanging over the series was simple: even at full strength, was he enough?
Game 1 suggested he wasn’t. Paul scored 32 in his long-awaited Finals debut, Booker added 27, and Phoenix was composed throughout. Game 2 confirmed the Suns’ structural superiority — they drilled 20 three-pointers, a franchise playoff record, and won 118-108, despite Giannis putting up 42 points and 12 rebounds.
The Bucks’ survival began in Game 4, when Khris Middleton delivered 40 points, and Giannis produced a series-defining block on Ayton’s would-be tying alley-oop. Then Game 5 in Phoenix: down 16 after the first quarter, Milwaukee stormed back, and Jrue Holiday sealed it with a steal and an alley-oop to Giannis that ended the Suns’ rally and, as it turned out, their season.
Then came Game 6. Giannis Antetokounmpo — a player who had threatened to leave Milwaukee, who had spent years hearing that he couldn’t win the big one — put up 50 points, 14 rebounds, and five blocked shots. The first player in Finals history to record 50 points alongside those figures. Not two of the three. All three. Holiday held Booker to 19 points on 8-of-22 shooting, the Bucks won 105-98, and a 50-year championship drought was over.
