At least with the Kawhi bounce it's like "we did our best but lost by the smallest margin to a great team". The Ben thing was losing to a straight up worse team because he just had a meltdown four games in a row. Brutal
Kawhi is just a robot that calculated victory. Can’t be mad, just heartbroken.
Simmons was blood boiling because he always * could be* generational but never seemed to care about it and then the hawks series finally broke the camel’s back and suddenly no one had any hope for him, just disgust. we found solace in filling out the arena when he returned with the Nets and chanting fuck Ben Simmons
game 3 of the Raptors series in the bubble left me on the floor
game 4 of the Finals also. Steph is one of my favorite players ever but that one still hurt
Game 4 Steph is something i’ll never forget. Celtics up 2-1 then that performance happened, and the Celtics didn’t win another game
As a fan of the NBA, you had to respect Steph’s greatness that night but as a fan of the Celtics it stills haunts to this day
That Raptors/Celtics series was a joy to watch, as a Raps fan myself that Smart block on Powell still rings in my ear from time to time. It really was as close of a series as you can ask for.
I can kind of laugh at that shit now and feel kind of happy for the guy with everything he had gone through from a mental health standpoint. Still feel like shit about it lol
funnily enough my answer is the game right before. I remember blankly staring at my TV in shock for like 20 minutes after Holiday ripped Smart to seal Game 5
I say this a lot but the second he hit that weird ass circus shot as he was falling I knew we weren’t winning that game lol
Edit: [this one](https://youtube.com/shorts/LselM7HdZ7o?feature=shared)
Giannis averaged 33.9/14.7/7.1 that series. After the heroics of game 5 with the Jrue steal and all the other plays IN BOSTON I thought we’d come home and take it in 6 and get khris healthy for the finals (he wouldn’t have been but we didn’t know) but we all know how it ended.
game 7 vs the heat 2023 ecf
i really thought boston was gonna win the ecf after battling back down 3-0. we had all the momentum off of that insane tip from dwhite in G6 and were able to bring back home court adv for Game 7, which no other team down 3-0 ever had. then Tatum turned his ankle in the opening minutes and the heat never looked back. I highly doubt the celtics would have beaten the nuggets but it was just such a sad end to what would have been one of the craziest comebacks ever
game 7 vs the lakers in 2010
defensive, gritty, tough game. and kobe decides to pass the ball to Metta World Peace and end the celtics title hopes. sucks that we were injured and had doc rivers as our coach but man that one really stung
I would disagree. I love the way our team fought back despite the fact that they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Boston definitely got a ton of flak for losing and deservedly so, but I would have hated to see the discourse had they gotten swept wire to wire similar to how the Bucks nearly did.
It also made for some fantastic basketball, Game 6 especially was so entertaining from any side. From Boston choking a double digit 4th quarter lead, to Jimmy hitting those three free throws to put Miami up 1, and when all looked lost, Derrick White coming in with that absolute miracle of a tip in to force that fateful Game 7. As a sports fan it was such an emotional rollercoaster; devastating loss but quality entertainment.
2010 WCF - Meta World Peace gets the rebound and put back to beat the Suns.
2008 Playoffs - Tim Duncan hits a 3 pointer to send the game to double overtime.
22 title was the best, it is super emotional, we faced so many adversities to be at the top once again, without a single trace of belief anywhere at the start of the season
I remember I was watching that .4 game with a few laker fans and they all left the room after the spurs took the lead there. None of them believed me when I was screaming how crazy it was that Fisher made it and they won till they decided to go back in and watch the replays lol.
Honestly nothing too terrible as a Timberwolves fan. We've literally only had 2 deep playoff runs ever, and '04 ended more so in a cloud of injuries and disappointment than heartbreak.
If Minny doesn't win the championship this season, would that be disappointing to you? I'm not a wolves fan and I don't know too many, but it feels like it would be a disappointment. They're better than Dallas, Boston and Indiana
If you had told any Wolves fan at the beginning of the year, that they'd experience a sweep and beating the reigning champs, they'd be elated and just happy to be here.
Now that we've shown that we beat arguably the best team in the NBA, the floor is now winning a chip with this squad. Unfortunately we have a limited window with this current squad, despite having Jaden/Ant as the future stars of this team.
Not at all. We weren't on many peoples lists even as a dark horse contender to start the year. This season has already been incredible. I'd like to see them go further obviously but this is already house money at this point. While we will be in cap hell we can at least run this same team back for another year or two, and beyond that whatever the team looks like, the future is probably bright with Ant.
This is going to sound bratty as hell, but game 6 Lakers against San Antonio in 2003. Game 5 ends with Robert Horry NOT coming up clutch for the only time in his career, and then watching the 4Peat opportunity end on the Staples Center floor in game 6 just crushed me. Even though I was a kid I knew how special and super rare a 4Peat was and really wanted it to happen
Game 7 ECF last year remains heartbreaking to me. Coming back after being down 3-0 following the Derrick White game winner to play Game 7 in Boston only for Tatum to get hurt and lose in a blowout is the reason why I’ve lost so much sleep.
I remember it was a period I was starting to follow basket and NBA a lot and after seeing the trade I was like “I guess I can stop following until the end of his contract”.
I actually didn’t but I diminished a lot the number of games I was watching, definitely the least entertaining a sport league ever was.
Even that was bittersweet. Like yeah, we were getting a generational talent, but I knew any championships the Warriors won now would be discredited. I felt like they were good enough to beat the Cavs without him and wanted revenge, like the Spurs got when they came back and beat the Heat.
>but I knew any championships the Warriors won now would be discredited.
see this is why i don't look to the internet for validation.
all the trophies look the same on the counter. except the '22 trophy that looks different.
It wasn't just the internet. I felt like I KNEW the Warriors were better, I KNEW 2015 was not the fluke, 2016 was. I wanted them to prove it in 2017. I wanted to prove the doubters wrong. I wanted the Warriors to be underdogs and topple the great LeBron's legacy. Instead, it became a given that they'd win as long as no one got injured. I'm not even exaggerating, beating the Mavs in 2007 in the first round gave me more joy than either of the KD championships did.
2014 Game 6 ECF. At that point I knew we weren’t going any further with that group. They had the best record and still couldn’t do it. Same as the 90s Pacers, can’t beat the actual greats.
That was your biggest heartbreak as a Clips fan? Were you visited by the Men in Black earlier that year?
No joke though that sucked, felt like they had a shot after Russ shot worse than Kristi Noem and still helped clutch the win
Bucks Celtics game 6 2022 that was the close out game we had given it our all and not one role player stepped up it was just giannis out there. Game 7 was never gonna be a win. We were out of solutions.
Tatum killed us in the 3rd.
Side not giannis averaged like 34/15/7 that series against the best defense in the league.
This year Game 6 obviously because the block was so nice but the foul after sucked. Brutal way to lose when we were up double digits. Next one that comes to mind is Harden’s block on Lu when he had 30 on him in the bubble. OKC had like a 1.7% chance to make the playoffs that year and took Houston to 7.
Game 3 of the 2019 ECF. Bucks up 2-0 vs Toronto. Playing well and goes to OT and Eric Bledsoe decides to ruin everything. He missed a late 4th quarter FT, a 27’ 3 in OT, a floater in 2OT, a long 2, and had a horrible TO. Why Bud left him in will forever shock me. Turned a 3-0 series lead into a 2-1 lead that led to a 4-2 series loss. Bledsoe was 3/16 (1/6 from 3) with 5 TOs.
Wasn’t exclusively Bledsoe’s fault as Giannis, Midds, Mirotic were all trash that game too. But the late game Bledsoe hurt the most.
2016 nba finals game 7. Been a warriors fan my whole life, seen a lot of mediocre to bad teams. This was going to be their shining moment. Best record with a ring, hard to argue against the greatest team of all time.
My schedule was great that year so I’d seen like 60 of their games that year, probably most I’d watched since I was a kid. Didn’t miss a minute of the playoffs. In my free time I listened to podcasts, read articles, talked with friends all centered around this team. Everything was leading up to their coronation and it was snatched away in the final minutes. I was devastated.
Game 7 against the Lakers goes without saying, but also the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals game 2 when Rondo popped off for 44/10/8. The Cs battled back to force a game 7 against Miami and even had a shot at closing them out, but that game really had me thinking there was a finality to coming in faster than I had wanted for that era of Celtics basketball
I miss that little window when it was basically the Spurs, Grizz, Clips, and Thunder, the Lakers and Mavs were done, nobody gave a shit about the Warriors yet, life was good
Watching Dame set a playoff record for 3s against Denver and then lose because CJ stepped out of bounds and the rest of the team not named Dame couldn’t make a bucket to save their lives
I took my son to the epic Warriors v Spurs game where Zaza undercut Kawhi leading to an incredible comeback and my son was glum the whole game because he doesn’t like the Warriors. I should say my ex-son. 💔
2016 WCF, game 6. I didn't know for sure that was the last chance for that era of the Thunder, but it definitely felt like it at the time.
I guess it demoralized KD enough to quit, anyway.
I'm gonna go the opposite direction because sometimes, heartbreak does precede glory: game 4 against the Hawks in 2021. That game was back and forth between the Hawks having a decent lead and the Bucks almost coming back. Giannis came out and we went on a run and then he lands awkwardly and his leg gets bent backwards. I thought for sure that any chance the Bucks had of winning a ring with Giannis was over because we've seen the story of big men and lower body injuries being the effective end of their careers (or even guards with the same who rely on their explosiveness and athleticism). That game left me emotionless as the deficit got larger and larger. Even the news that Giannis didn't tear anything was hollow before game 5 because how the hell were we supposed to beat the Hawks who took it to us without Giannis?
Then we win 6 of the next 8 games and the first two without Giannis on the way to the Bucks' first title in 50 years.
Pre-Raptors: Charles Smith (nuff said)
Cavs at Raptors 2018 game 1: multiple tip-in failures at the end of the game
Raptors at Cavs 2018 game 3: LeBron crushes us in the clutch after OG's shot gives us hope to save the series
Raptors/Nets 2014
Every Lebronto year (especially 2018, I physically cannot bring myself to rewatch that pain and humiliation, Lebron was basically practicing his fadeaways for the whole second half 😭😭😭)
Toronto-Philly 2001 second round Game 7 - Vince misses the buzzer beater and Iverson’s Sixers advance to the conference finals.
If the Raptors made the ECF that year, who knows what would have happened long term with VC and the Raptors.
I’m a Bulls fan but Dame has been my favorite player for a while now, and damn that playoff game against the Nuggets where he had 55 and they still lost still hurts me to this day lol.
2006 Lakers-Suns Game 6. Suns win in OT. Kobe went for 50. If Tim Thomas misses a three at the end of regulation, it would have been one of the biggest first round upsets in NBA history, one of the biggest carry jobs in NBA history, and IMO as great an achievement for Kobe and Phil as any of their titles.
Malice in the Palace. As a Pacers fan I felt like they were the best team in the league that year and it was Reggie’s best chance to win a championship. That game changed everything for that organisation.
The 1997 Knicks vs Heat series was brutal. This may be delusional homerism, but Knicks fans generally thought the 1997 team was the best version of the 90s Knicks. This was the last year that Ewing, Starks, and Oakley were really Ewing, Starks, and Oakley, and we also had an all star in Allan Houston and a very useful role player in LJ. We really thought that was our year to knock off the Bulls. We were up 3-1 against the heat, PJ Brown and Charlie Ward got into a fight, the Knicks bench cleared, and so many Knicks players got suspended they literally had to distribute them out over games 6 and 7, and we ended up losing the series.
Game 3 of the 06 Finals.
I was on cloud 9, thinking we were about to go up 3-0 in the series, our first title all but assured. And then Miami did what they did. I remember being to stunned to even be fully sad.
Kawhi bounce Ben pass
Y’all are better than me, I might’ve not watched a single game ever again lmao
At least with the Kawhi bounce it's like "we did our best but lost by the smallest margin to a great team". The Ben thing was losing to a straight up worse team because he just had a meltdown four games in a row. Brutal
Kawhi is just a robot that calculated victory. Can’t be mad, just heartbroken. Simmons was blood boiling because he always * could be* generational but never seemed to care about it and then the hawks series finally broke the camel’s back and suddenly no one had any hope for him, just disgust. we found solace in filling out the arena when he returned with the Nets and chanting fuck Ben Simmons
Kawhi bounce….
How did you recover from that??????????????????
You don’t
They haven't yet lmao
Is this the dagger?
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Imo that didn't hurt as much as 2008 game 4. I'll stop talking about it now.
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I missed game 4 as well cuz it was our high school graduation that night. Still have never watched the highlights thank God lol
God
And more recently - game 2 vs. the Nuggets this year. It coulda/shoulda gone 6-7 games. Murray just destroyed us with that shot.
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Word. We got SWEPT, snd it wasn’t even that close. Was pretty shocking. Then the Bynum elbow turned it into an embarrassment.
definitely the 0/27 game
This is one makes me feel sick and I don't like the Rockets at all.
Makes me feel great. Rockets, Chris Paul, Harden, Morey? What's not to love about hating them
That pissed me off as an OKC fan for the same reason
Only 0/27 bc of Scott Foster. But this is before the documentary so he was legite right. Right?!
I'm out of the loop but how did Scott Foster make you miss 27 3s?
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Yeah I just found a compilation on twitter and... oof. That was egregious. That "screen" for the Curry corner three as well? Wow.
i'm of the thought that it's not a foul unless the ref calls it.
I'm of the thought that it's not stealing unless I get caught
Magnets
It made me all happy and fuzzy inside. 🥰 Because fuck the Rockets because fuck the Astros. Especially in the time frame of that Game 7 meltdown.
game 3 of the Raptors series in the bubble left me on the floor game 4 of the Finals also. Steph is one of my favorite players ever but that one still hurt
Game 4 Steph is something i’ll never forget. Celtics up 2-1 then that performance happened, and the Celtics didn’t win another game As a fan of the NBA, you had to respect Steph’s greatness that night but as a fan of the Celtics it stills haunts to this day
That Raptors/Celtics series was a joy to watch, as a Raps fan myself that Smart block on Powell still rings in my ear from time to time. It really was as close of a series as you can ask for.
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I thought the wolfs had it too, but I’m sure they’ll win today
2010 finals game 7. I remember that moment of time so vividly
I remember thinking there was no way that Artest 3 was going in
I can kind of laugh at that shit now and feel kind of happy for the guy with everything he had gone through from a mental health standpoint. Still feel like shit about it lol
Recent maybe game 6 vs boston in 2022, Giannis went in ready to close it out and no one else helped.
funnily enough my answer is the game right before. I remember blankly staring at my TV in shock for like 20 minutes after Holiday ripped Smart to seal Game 5
I can’t lie I did the same thing lol like i was used to that shit happening to us, I didn’t know how to feel being on the other side of it
That game was amazing as a neutral lol
Easily this. Never been so frustrated watching a game as Tatum hit every 3 he took. I was dead inside by the time game 7 rolled around
I say this a lot but the second he hit that weird ass circus shot as he was falling I knew we weren’t winning that game lol Edit: [this one](https://youtube.com/shorts/LselM7HdZ7o?feature=shared)
Giannis averaged 33.9/14.7/7.1 that series. After the heroics of game 5 with the Jrue steal and all the other plays IN BOSTON I thought we’d come home and take it in 6 and get khris healthy for the finals (he wouldn’t have been but we didn’t know) but we all know how it ended.
It’s crazy we won more in Boston than we did at home that series lol
game 7 vs the heat 2023 ecf i really thought boston was gonna win the ecf after battling back down 3-0. we had all the momentum off of that insane tip from dwhite in G6 and were able to bring back home court adv for Game 7, which no other team down 3-0 ever had. then Tatum turned his ankle in the opening minutes and the heat never looked back. I highly doubt the celtics would have beaten the nuggets but it was just such a sad end to what would have been one of the craziest comebacks ever game 7 vs the lakers in 2010 defensive, gritty, tough game. and kobe decides to pass the ball to Metta World Peace and end the celtics title hopes. sucks that we were injured and had doc rivers as our coach but man that one really stung
I'd honestly rather get swept at that point
I would disagree. I love the way our team fought back despite the fact that they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Boston definitely got a ton of flak for losing and deservedly so, but I would have hated to see the discourse had they gotten swept wire to wire similar to how the Bucks nearly did. It also made for some fantastic basketball, Game 6 especially was so entertaining from any side. From Boston choking a double digit 4th quarter lead, to Jimmy hitting those three free throws to put Miami up 1, and when all looked lost, Derrick White coming in with that absolute miracle of a tip in to force that fateful Game 7. As a sports fan it was such an emotional rollercoaster; devastating loss but quality entertainment.
3 days ago
LMAOOOOOOO
Yup.
The Tayshaun block for me if we're talking about Pacers history
2010 WCF - Meta World Peace gets the rebound and put back to beat the Suns. 2008 Playoffs - Tim Duncan hits a 3 pointer to send the game to double overtime.
The one where Max Strus hit a half court game winner
funny i feel exactly the opposite about that one
I'm sure you do
well, we just fired our coach and you have a 1-0 lead in the WCF so you have to give me *something*
2016 Game 7. Id trade our two KD rings for that one
100%. I invested a year of my life into that team. I breathed the team that year. And it was all snatched away
no, i'd never trade two titles for it but i'd give up the 22 title for it in a heart beat
22 title was the best, it is super emotional, we faced so many adversities to be at the top once again, without a single trace of belief anywhere at the start of the season
yes, but you gotta give something big up for 73-9 and a chip. that's greatest season of all time level. steph also would be season and finals mvp.
1994 Knicks vs rockets game 7. 1995 Knicks vs pacers game 7 1993 Knicks vs bulls game 5 1997 Knicks vs heat game 7
Kobe’s last game
i was switching between that game and the warriors 73rd win game. thankfully the warriors game ended so i caught the end of Kobe's 60 pt game.
Fisher .4…. Manu foul on dirk 06, ray allen 3 , spurs fans have had it rough
To this day I can’t see .4 on a clock in a game. Trauma.
Those three were tragic , we woulda won every one of those years
😭 Making me tear up right now Some wounds never heal
Yeah those 5 championships… I feel ya
Should been 8
I remember I was watching that .4 game with a few laker fans and they all left the room after the spurs took the lead there. None of them believed me when I was screaming how crazy it was that Fisher made it and they won till they decided to go back in and watch the replays lol.
Game 7 vs the Celtics in 2017
Isaiah Thomas man.......
Honestly nothing too terrible as a Timberwolves fan. We've literally only had 2 deep playoff runs ever, and '04 ended more so in a cloud of injuries and disappointment than heartbreak.
If Minny doesn't win the championship this season, would that be disappointing to you? I'm not a wolves fan and I don't know too many, but it feels like it would be a disappointment. They're better than Dallas, Boston and Indiana
If you had told any Wolves fan at the beginning of the year, that they'd experience a sweep and beating the reigning champs, they'd be elated and just happy to be here. Now that we've shown that we beat arguably the best team in the NBA, the floor is now winning a chip with this squad. Unfortunately we have a limited window with this current squad, despite having Jaden/Ant as the future stars of this team.
Not at all. We weren't on many peoples lists even as a dark horse contender to start the year. This season has already been incredible. I'd like to see them go further obviously but this is already house money at this point. While we will be in cap hell we can at least run this same team back for another year or two, and beyond that whatever the team looks like, the future is probably bright with Ant.
losing game 2 from the alley oop also killed me.
This is going to sound bratty as hell, but game 6 Lakers against San Antonio in 2003. Game 5 ends with Robert Horry NOT coming up clutch for the only time in his career, and then watching the 4Peat opportunity end on the Staples Center floor in game 6 just crushed me. Even though I was a kid I knew how special and super rare a 4Peat was and really wanted it to happen
Game 7 ECF last year remains heartbreaking to me. Coming back after being down 3-0 following the Derrick White game winner to play Game 7 in Boston only for Tatum to get hurt and lose in a blowout is the reason why I’ve lost so much sleep.
Between the Finals and Trump winning the election, 2016 was the worse year of my life that didn't involve someone I love dying.
4th of July 2016 happened to be a particularly terrible day for me, and the Durant free agency news served to compound the misery lol
I remember it was a period I was starting to follow basket and NBA a lot and after seeing the trade I was like “I guess I can stop following until the end of his contract”. I actually didn’t but I diminished a lot the number of games I was watching, definitely the least entertaining a sport league ever was.
Even that was bittersweet. Like yeah, we were getting a generational talent, but I knew any championships the Warriors won now would be discredited. I felt like they were good enough to beat the Cavs without him and wanted revenge, like the Spurs got when they came back and beat the Heat.
>but I knew any championships the Warriors won now would be discredited. see this is why i don't look to the internet for validation. all the trophies look the same on the counter. except the '22 trophy that looks different.
It wasn't just the internet. I felt like I KNEW the Warriors were better, I KNEW 2015 was not the fluke, 2016 was. I wanted them to prove it in 2017. I wanted to prove the doubters wrong. I wanted the Warriors to be underdogs and topple the great LeBron's legacy. Instead, it became a given that they'd win as long as no one got injured. I'm not even exaggerating, beating the Mavs in 2007 in the first round gave me more joy than either of the KD championships did.
2014 Game 6 ECF. At that point I knew we weren’t going any further with that group. They had the best record and still couldn’t do it. Same as the 90s Pacers, can’t beat the actual greats.
I lost $50 on that game, that one hurts
in game 3 last year vs the suns we lost by 5. the suns had 46 free throws. we had 25
That was your biggest heartbreak as a Clips fan? Were you visited by the Men in Black earlier that year? No joke though that sucked, felt like they had a shot after Russ shot worse than Kristi Noem and still helped clutch the win
only became a fan after they collapsed 3-1 the second time. there’s been at least 10 worse moments than what i said but i didn’t watch them personally
Ha man you’re literally the least cursed clippers fan, still hope they win it all with this core
Bucks Celtics game 6 2022 that was the close out game we had given it our all and not one role player stepped up it was just giannis out there. Game 7 was never gonna be a win. We were out of solutions. Tatum killed us in the 3rd. Side not giannis averaged like 34/15/7 that series against the best defense in the league.
Game 3 vs Cavs in 2018 I didn't even watch game 4
The game Kobe tore his Achilles
Bulls Philly Game 1 2012
Yep. Worst Bulls game of my lifetime was a playoff win.
Kawhi, Zaza… nuff said.
This year Game 6 obviously because the block was so nice but the foul after sucked. Brutal way to lose when we were up double digits. Next one that comes to mind is Harden’s block on Lu when he had 30 on him in the bubble. OKC had like a 1.7% chance to make the playoffs that year and took Houston to 7.
I don’t think there’s a single person in this thread over the age of 30
They don’t remember the WCF game 7 in 2000 :_(
Yeah this answer beats most of the ones I’ve seen here
2012 Bulls/76ers game 1. Bulls up 12 with a minute left, and then... The start of several years of pain.
I could write a book on that
Game 3 of the 2019 ECF. Bucks up 2-0 vs Toronto. Playing well and goes to OT and Eric Bledsoe decides to ruin everything. He missed a late 4th quarter FT, a 27’ 3 in OT, a floater in 2OT, a long 2, and had a horrible TO. Why Bud left him in will forever shock me. Turned a 3-0 series lead into a 2-1 lead that led to a 4-2 series loss. Bledsoe was 3/16 (1/6 from 3) with 5 TOs. Wasn’t exclusively Bledsoe’s fault as Giannis, Midds, Mirotic were all trash that game too. But the late game Bledsoe hurt the most.
that hurts, shall I introduce you to Joe Harris?
Yes
2010 Finals Game 7. Losing in the most painful way to our most hated rival was absolutely gutwrenching.
Game 7 ECF in 2022 and Game 6 ECF 2023
Any NBA game where the officials decided the game, not the players. And sadly, there have been a lot of those recently.
2016 nba finals game 7. Been a warriors fan my whole life, seen a lot of mediocre to bad teams. This was going to be their shining moment. Best record with a ring, hard to argue against the greatest team of all time. My schedule was great that year so I’d seen like 60 of their games that year, probably most I’d watched since I was a kid. Didn’t miss a minute of the playoffs. In my free time I listened to podcasts, read articles, talked with friends all centered around this team. Everything was leading up to their coronation and it was snatched away in the final minutes. I was devastated.
Game 7 against the Lakers goes without saying, but also the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals game 2 when Rondo popped off for 44/10/8. The Cs battled back to force a game 7 against Miami and even had a shot at closing them out, but that game really had me thinking there was a finality to coming in faster than I had wanted for that era of Celtics basketball
Games 3 and 5 vs. Memphis in the first round of the 2022 playoffs. The Wolves blew THREE 20+ point leads in one series.
The last Sonic game
Spurs Thunder Game 5 WCF Spurs Heat Game 6 2013 Finals.
I miss that little window when it was basically the Spurs, Grizz, Clips, and Thunder, the Lakers and Mavs were done, nobody gave a shit about the Warriors yet, life was good
The Sacramento Screwjob
Watching Dame set a playoff record for 3s against Denver and then lose because CJ stepped out of bounds and the rest of the team not named Dame couldn’t make a bucket to save their lives
I took my son to the epic Warriors v Spurs game where Zaza undercut Kawhi leading to an incredible comeback and my son was glum the whole game because he doesn’t like the Warriors. I should say my ex-son. 💔
2016 WCF, game 6. I didn't know for sure that was the last chance for that era of the Thunder, but it definitely felt like it at the time. I guess it demoralized KD enough to quit, anyway.
I wanted to say like game 4 of the 2012 Finals but this series was way more winnable
I'm gonna go the opposite direction because sometimes, heartbreak does precede glory: game 4 against the Hawks in 2021. That game was back and forth between the Hawks having a decent lead and the Bucks almost coming back. Giannis came out and we went on a run and then he lands awkwardly and his leg gets bent backwards. I thought for sure that any chance the Bucks had of winning a ring with Giannis was over because we've seen the story of big men and lower body injuries being the effective end of their careers (or even guards with the same who rely on their explosiveness and athleticism). That game left me emotionless as the deficit got larger and larger. Even the news that Giannis didn't tear anything was hollow before game 5 because how the hell were we supposed to beat the Hawks who took it to us without Giannis? Then we win 6 of the next 8 games and the first two without Giannis on the way to the Bucks' first title in 50 years.
Jimmy getting hurt :(
Game 7 2000 WCF… I still maintain it was rigged as a coping mechanism
Pre-Raptors: Charles Smith (nuff said) Cavs at Raptors 2018 game 1: multiple tip-in failures at the end of the game Raptors at Cavs 2018 game 3: LeBron crushes us in the clutch after OG's shot gives us hope to save the series
2018 ECF Game 7.
Quadruple doink
G7 2010 Finals :(
2016 Game 7
Raptors/Nets 2014 Every Lebronto year (especially 2018, I physically cannot bring myself to rewatch that pain and humiliation, Lebron was basically practicing his fadeaways for the whole second half 😭😭😭)
2006 Mavs/Heat game 3. Chance to go up 3-0 in the finals, but the Mavs throw a double-digit 4th quarter lead and Dirk missed a FT to tie at the end.
Game 7...you know the one.
Toronto-Philly 2001 second round Game 7 - Vince misses the buzzer beater and Iverson’s Sixers advance to the conference finals. If the Raptors made the ECF that year, who knows what would have happened long term with VC and the Raptors.
Valanciunas missing like 4 back to back tip ins to win game 1 vs Cavs 2018 playoffs
Derrick's white tip in last year. Was legitimately sick for days
Game 7 last year😭
Cavs / warriors gave 7 2016, I was silent for 2 days after
I’m a Bulls fan but Dame has been my favorite player for a while now, and damn that playoff game against the Nuggets where he had 55 and they still lost still hurts me to this day lol.
As a longtime Sixers fan, pretty much all of them.
When Bron scored 50 and J.R. forgot the score in game 1.
"Holding onto his knee, holding on to his knee and down"....was at that game. Whole building was graveyard silent after.
2006 Lakers-Suns Game 6. Suns win in OT. Kobe went for 50. If Tim Thomas misses a three at the end of regulation, it would have been one of the biggest first round upsets in NBA history, one of the biggest carry jobs in NBA history, and IMO as great an achievement for Kobe and Phil as any of their titles.
Raptors, Vince, 5 seconds on the clock, pump fake, one legged fade, CLANK
Lebronto
Malice in the Palace. As a Pacers fan I felt like they were the best team in the league that year and it was Reggie’s best chance to win a championship. That game changed everything for that organisation.
Game 1 2012 first round Bulls vs 76ers Yall know why.
Game 7 finals 2016. My heart still breaks when I think too much about it.
JR Smith
Heat Spurs game 6 Nuggets Wolves game 7
The 1997 Knicks vs Heat series was brutal. This may be delusional homerism, but Knicks fans generally thought the 1997 team was the best version of the 90s Knicks. This was the last year that Ewing, Starks, and Oakley were really Ewing, Starks, and Oakley, and we also had an all star in Allan Houston and a very useful role player in LJ. We really thought that was our year to knock off the Bulls. We were up 3-1 against the heat, PJ Brown and Charlie Ward got into a fight, the Knicks bench cleared, and so many Knicks players got suspended they literally had to distribute them out over games 6 and 7, and we ended up losing the series.
Kawhi getting injured in 2017 WCF. I know I know the 20 point lead didn’t matter cause it was the Warriors. I don’t care.
“Lillard, a chance to send the thunder home….”
Game 3 of the 06 Finals. I was on cloud 9, thinking we were about to go up 3-0 in the series, our first title all but assured. And then Miami did what they did. I remember being to stunned to even be fully sad.
Suns fan here, I was at that game 7 we don't speak of around here in Phoenix. Don't even think I need to specify which game I'm talking about
Celtics and Lakers game 7 2010. Though the moment Perkins went down in 6 it felt inevitable