Finishing last is never nice. Finishing last can equate to an unfavourable draw for a possible play-off spot. You will always be on the road and never have home comforts. You also run the risk of facing the best teams that are possibly hard to beat.
Despite the odds, there have been instances of NBA teams overcoming the odds to reach the finals and even winning the championship.
In this current season, The NBA playoff picture came into full focus on Friday night with the final two games of the play-in tournament being played.
The Miami Heat, who were the last team into the Eastern Conference play-in bracket with the 10th-best record in the regular season, knocked off the Atlanta Hawks with a 123-114 overtime win to become the No. 8 seed in the East.
In the Western Conference, it was the Memphis Grizzlies pummeling the Dallas Mavericks 120-106 to take the eighth seed in the West. In the first game of the night, the Heat rolled into Atlanta looking for a second straight do-or-die win after defeating the Bulls in Chicago on Wednesday in their first play-in game.
The Heat caught the Hawks flat-footed, leading by as much as 17 points in the first half. The Hawks shook off a poor shooting performance early in the game and rallied to take the lead in the fourth quarter, sparked by some clutch shooting from guard, Trae Young. It was a driving lay-up from Young that tied the game at 106 with just a second left on the clock to force overtime.
With the win, the Heat slide into the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and become the first 10th place team to ever advance out of the play-in tournament. Miami will now face the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in a first round series beginning Sunday.
In Friday’s nightcap, the Grizzlies were not about about to let Dallas become the second 10th place team to advance, as Memphis dealt the Mavericks a decisive defeat. The Grizzlies pounced all over the Mavs early, walloping Dallas from the opening tip to establish a 39-24 lead after the first quarter.
Memphis continued to pour it on in the second quarter, running their lead up to as many as 25 points. The Grizzlies would coast from there. With star guard, Ja Morant, playing on an injured right ankle after rolling it in Grizzlies’ loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, Memphis was lifted by an all-around team effort on Friday.
All of the Grizzlies’ starters scored in double figures, led by Jaren Jackson Jr.’s 24 points. Morant scored 22 for Memphis.
The Mavericks, on the other hand, were more or less a one-man band. Anthony Davis, who joined Dallas as part of the much-scrutinized trade with the Los Angeles Lakers involving Luka Dončić, scored a game-high 40 points.
The next highest scorer for Dallas was Klay Thompson with 18 and two of the Mavericks’ starters – PJ Washington and Dereck Lively II – didn’t score at all.
It was a lackluster ending to a disappointing season for the Mavericks, who entered the season with championship dreams fueled by the presence of their MVP-candidate Dončić. The surprising mid-season decision to trade the Slovenian superstar coupled with a slew of key injuries, including to star guard, Kyrie Irving; which ultimately derailed any title aspirations Dallas might have had.
With their win, the Grizzlies earn the final spot in the Western Conference and a showdown with the No. 1 seed, Oklahoma City Thunder, owners of the NBA’s best record during the regular season.
Previously, In the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, the New York Knicks went 27-23 in the regular season to grab the East’s eighth and final playoff spot. In a win-or-go-home Game 5 against the No. 1 Miami Heat in Round 1, Allan Houston hit a go-ahead shot with under one second remaining to push the Knicks into the conference semi-finals.
Patrick Ewing and Co. met the No. 4 Atlanta Hawks in the second round and rolled to a four-game sweep. Then, in a conference finals where five of the six games were decided by single digits, the Knicks defeated the Reggie Miller-led Indiana Pacers to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals.
New York ran into the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals and fell in five games, as Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan combined for their first of five championships over a 15-year stretch.
The Heat last season became the second No. 8 seed to make an NBA Finals run. Miami's postseason actually started in the play-in tournament following a 44-38 regular season. The Heat fell at home to the Hawks in the 7-8 game before rallying past the Chicago Bulls to claim the No. 8 seed.
After nearly missing out on the play-offs, Jimmy Butler and Co. proceeded to take down the No. 1 Milwaukee Bucks in five games and the No. 5 Knicks in six games.
Then, in a rematch of the previous year's East Finals, Miami jumped out to a 3-0 series lead over the No. 2 Celtics. The Heat dropped the next three games but avoided an epic collapse by winning Game 7 in Boston.
Miami's historic run came to an end in the Finals, where Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets rolled to a five-game series victory.
The 1994-95 Houston Rockets will continue to stand as the lowest-seeded champion in NBA history.
As the reigning NBA champions, Houston entered the 1995 post-season as a No. 6 seed following a 47-35 regular season. The Rockets went the distance with their opponent in each of the first two series, first beating the No. 3 Utah Jazz in five games and then the No. 2 Phoenix Suns in seven games.
Hakeem Olajuwon and Co. actually came back from a 3-1 deficit against Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns. The second-round triumph was capped by a one-point road win in Game 7, where Mario Elie drilled a tie-breaking 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds that became known as the, "Kiss of Death."
After splitting the first two games in the West Finals versus San Antonio, Houston took Games 5 and 6 to make it back to a second consecutive NBA Finals. The Rockets beat the Knicks in seven games the prior year and this time they were matched up with Shaquille O’Neal’s Orlando Magic.
Hakeem got the better of Shaq in the series, powering the Rockets to a sweep and a historic repeat.
The 2019-20 Heat are the only other No. 5 seed to ever make the Finals. That Miami team lost to the No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers in the bubble.
New York revamped its roster before the start of the 1998-99 season by acquiring Marcus Camby and Latrell Sprewell via trades and Kurt Thomas in free agency. The Knicks added those players to a group already featuring Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson and Charlie Ward.
The team dealt with injuries and struggled to mesh during the 50-game campaign, just barely reaching the NBA play-offs with a 27-23 record. An early elimination seemed likely and it was expected to cost Jeff Van Gundy his head coaching job.
Everything changed in the post-season, though. The Knicks stunned the top-seeded Heat in the first round and dominated the Hawks in a second-round sweep. Then, New York took down the Pacers largely without the services of Ewing, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The incredible run ended when the Knicks ran into the Spurs in the NBA Finals. Without Ewing in the front court, New York had no answers for San Antonio's "Twin Tower" attack of Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
Still, that 1998-99 squad holds a special place in the hearts of New Yorkers — and in NBA history.
If this piece proves one thing, it's that you can't ever count a team out, no matter how poor they might have performed during the season. Every team can have that one spark that can ignite a string of spectacular performances that lead them to potential glory. A potential danger of this would be a singular person being that spark. It's never ideal to bank a team's success on one person. It's therefore vital that there are multiple individuals that led the charge to the promise land.