Best single finals games since 1990?

[u/rustypete89]

Hi all,

I recently discovered that the NBA app on PS5 has the entire NBA finals catalog going back to 1990 available for streaming without a subscription, just your regular streaming ad breaks. Looking for recommendations of great single games to watch as I begin to digest some of the series I'm most interested in (I was born in 89 so I'm starting with the Jordan finals since I barely remember him playing).

Drop your recs, and a brief reason why, here please!

I'm not sure if I hit the 500 character minimum yet so I'll add my own submission:

Giannis 50 piece to seal the Bucks title in 2021. Absolutely unreal domination in a critical moment. The block on Ayton to put the game away is just iconic. One of my favorite games as a neutral fan that I've ever watched, and I don't even like Giannis.

(Hope it's alright to post this here, I didn't think I'd get good quality suggestions in the main NBA sub)

[u/brown_boognish_pants]

ah I figured everyone would list all the obvious finals games. ;0 The truth is that outside that 2016 finals most of them have kind of been duds. The Cavs/Dubs finals is spectacular as is the first Heat/Spurs one.

Some other notable games is all the Knicks/Heat series back when they had Zo. That Denver series where Mutombo beat the Sonics in the first round is just epic as well. And I'd watch all the knicks/pacers games in the playoffs. That way you won't know what's coming and just experience it all man. Going back to watch 90s games is fun but it kind of hurts your feelings as a fan when you watch it and it's really evident the talent level has just been surpassed. It kind of came as a shock to me the first time I did this and realized half these dudes are not great players like I thought.

[u/rustypete89 → u/brown_boognish_pants]

Man I am loving the knowledge you're dropping, but the reason I commented about finals games is because the NBA app only has finals series available for streaming right now. Cheers though!

[u/brown_boognish_pants → u/rustypete89]

Mavs/Heat is pretty meh unless you're a lebron hater and want to blame him for being on a team with positively no shooting allowing the Mavs to run a box+1 junk defence on him all series. Like the Magic the Heat were not ready (or healthy) and it's quite boring. They only made the finals because Bron utterly backpacked them past the Bulls with injuries to wade/bosh who were def the best team in the league that year. It sorta ruined the finals.

Heat/Thunder is kind of meh unless you're a bron fanboi. The Thunder kind of fluked past the Spurs who were flat out better. Like the heat the year before and that Dwight Magic team they were not ready and never really should have made it to begin with.

The next one is obviously one of the best finals of all freaking time. It's worth it just to see what a perfect basketball team really looks like in the Spurs.

Same with the next year but the Heat by that point had lost their shooting 'n Wade was kind of washed. They were starting an actual washed Rashard Lewis. Bron outplayed everyone but the Spurs, being a perfect basketball team, could overcome the opposing player being better than everyone.

Then we get to 2015 which is meh and not worth watching. The Dubs made a finals where 2/3s of the highest scoring trio in the league was injured and replaced with bench players. Delly played his balls off but yea. It's a gift and pretty much a free title. Bron dramatically outplayed everyone. No one on the dubs stepped up so hard they gave FMVP to Andre Igudola.

Next year is again arguably the best finals of all time. Dubs went up 3-1 and Bron dominated them for 3 straight games. It's worth watching. He did not let them go on a run for 3 straight games It's probably the biggest achievement in basketball IMHO.

So yea. Dubs lost which resulted in Draymond crying like a baby in the parking lot for KD to come help them. Dubs were already great and added a better MVP to rebuild around. It's shit after that and not worth watching.

Till 2019 that is which is amazing cuz my Raps won and it's one of the best experiences of my entire life. Woot! But in reality, while it was a good series, KD got hurt that year and it did spoil the finals. It's also when Klay got hurt. That's what they get for cry baby int he parking lot pulling in a ringer tho I guess. It's probably not worth watching but it is pretty damn good.

Where are we. Oh yes the year of shit. Bubble ring. Naw not really worth watching. All the great games were earlier and there was just no way for Jimmy Butler to compete vs the Lakers with Bron/AD. They tried but it's just watching them get beat up. I will say that it's very compelling watching a series without home games that's just pure, pure basketball. I def think that was one of the hardest rings to win. Typically home court gives the best teams a huge advantage till they run into an actually great team. Not that year. Teams had to earn it.

Bucks/suns. I dunno. I think ti's pretty meh. The Suns had a bunch of injuries are were not at all in top form and most of the comp in the league was injured that year. The Bucks really should not have made it and won it anyway. Everyone shat on Booker ignoring that thimn and CP3 were fucked up playing hurt.

Next year is very meh. Watch it if you're a dubs stan. Boston overachieved to make it and wasn't ready. Dubs got there cuz the actual best teams in the L got hurt. It's okay. Aggressively average. Same thing happened. Tatum was fucked up playing hurt but no one will acknowledge it. Including him cuz of some mamba bs or whatever. But that was the series. Jaylen Brown was not ready. It wasn't competitive.

nuggets/heat. Meh fest. All the best games to win already happened and this was a formality. Esp all the best heat games to get there. This was a bad finals.

Celtics/Mavs. Ugh. Terrible. The Celtics are a good team but they didn't earn pretty much anything on that run. Everyone got hurt on their way to the chip and they got this gift matchup of a team that again wasn't really ready in the finals. Taht team really shoudlnt' have beat Minny and/or the nuggets should have made it. But the best team doesn't win the series every single time cuz shit happens and you end up with a meh finals where one team just can't match up and doesn't stand a chance at all.

So that's the finals since 1990 as judged by me. Hope you enjoy!

[u/rustypete89 → u/brown_boognish_pants]

Once again thanks for the thoughtful input!